After nearly 6 years of operations, Meta (previously known as Facebook) decided to wind down its low cost “Express Wifi” programme, two weeks ago.
Launched in 2016, Express Wi-Fi was platform developed by Meta Connectivity that has enabled mobile and satellite operators and internet service providers to build, grow and monetize their Wi-Fi businesses in a sustainable and scalable way, while providing their customers with fast, affordable and reliable internet access over Wi-Fi.
It was designed to provide inexpensive net services, starting at around 15 cents for 100MB or $5 for 20GB, the report said.
Glitches in internet services
According to international media reports, glitches in Meta’s free internet services were creating unwanted charges for users in countries like Pakistan. Meta was also reportedly favoring its own content on its free-data Discover service to the detriment of other site.
Meta said that while they are going to wind down the Express Wifi project, the company will still continue to focus on other projects around internet access, “Together with our partners, we helped expand public Wi-Fi access for people in more than 30 countries via the Express Wi-Fi platform. While we are concluding our work on this program to focus on developing other projects, we remain committed to working with partners across the telecom ecosystem to deliver better connectivity.”
Published on
February 17, 2022
