Facebook targets cheaper Wi-Fi plans for Rural India through Express Wi-Fi

Facebook continues to reach out to people around the globe by extending their services and is now aiming to bring cheaper Wi-Fi plans to its subscribers in rural India. India is probably one of the places and the only largest market to be almost untouched by internet.

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Metal towers of communications networks with five microwave relay dishes which cover 2,500 square miles of India's terrains have been built as part of Facebook's plan to build Wi-Fi access points, which are cheap, to help remote villages access the internet easily. The microwave dishes sends signal to and from the valley below or the base station to the other mountain towers and to the other internet points in about 40 villages.

One citizen of India's Garhwal region, which is near the Nepalese border, has been quoted to using or accessing the internet for at least 4 hours to check up with their relatives through Facebook and playing games. He does this through availing of the latest wireless Internet service, the Express Wi-Fi.

The Express Wi-Fi is available at a cheaper rate which compared to the current most reliable cellular operator in the mountains, Airtel; is roughly about one third their similar offered services. The Express Wi-Fi comes in plans of 10 Indian rupees or about 15 cents for 100 megabytes of data and 3 US dollars for 20 gigabytes of data. These plans can be used for a month.

The common problem though is the internet signal can only be accessed at certain areas or parts of the place. This drawback remains to be experienced in Garhwal which only has a single Express Wi-Fi access point and which is mainly focused on the main business strip.

The Express Wi-Fi is just a part of Internet.org, Facebook's ambitious plan in making the internet accessible to people without it. Part of their plan is a package of free basic internet services, which is not offered through local cellular carriers in 25 countries including India. Improving physical access to the internet is also part of Internet.org's goal and it remains to be seen whether it would succeed in India, which is said to be its prime testing ground.

Still, whether they do it in the near future, Facebook is sure to be highly motivated as it is reported that they have already about 130 million users all throughout India. This might increase if they do indeed make progress with their Express Wi-Fi plans and make the internet more accessible to rural India.