3.2 BILLION people are now online: Facebook study reveals global internet population.
3.2 BILLION people are now online: Facebook study reveals global internet population as Mark Zuckerberg pledges to carry on with free internet project
Facebook's second annual 'State of Connectivity' report, released late Sunday, showed that 200 million people gained Internet access in 2015, due to 'more affordable data and rising global incomes' ©Ed Jones (AFP/File)
- Study found 4.1 billion people are still unable to get online
- Urban areas are connected, many rural areas are not
- Zuckerberg vowed to press on with 3-year-old effort to bring world online
- Firm using AI to create population maps as part of project
The number of people worldwide with Internet access reached 3.2 billion at the end of 2015, but the remaining 4.1 billion still could not get online, a Facebook-sponsored study showed.
Facebook's second annual 'State of Connectivity' report, released late Sunday, showed that 200 million people gained Internet access in 2015, due to 'more affordable data and rising global incomes.'
The report said the remaining world population needs help to gain access to the Internet and the economic opportunities it enables.
'The developed world is largely online, but the developing world is a long way behind,' the report said.
'Urban areas are connected, many rural areas are not.
'The less money you have, the less likely you are to be online. In many countries, women use the Internet far less than men. And even if the entire world lived within range of the necessary infrastructure, nearly a billion people remain illiterate or otherwise unable to benefit from online content.'
The report said improving access 'is a major challenge that will require the cooperation of many stakeholders through innovation and investment.'
If there's no significant change to current trends, more than three billion people will remain offline by 2020, nearly all in developing countries, the report said.
It comes as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg vowed Monday to press on with his 3-year-old effort to bring the developing world online, even after Indian regulators banned one of the pillars of the campaign.
He said the banned service, Free Basics, was only one program in his Internet.org campaign, so he could proceed with other initiatives.
Indian regulators banned Free Basics this month because it provided access only to certain pre-approved services — including Facebook — rather than the full Internet.
'Facebook isn't a company that hits a roadblock and gives up,' Zuckerberg said at the Mobile World Congress wireless show in Barcelona, Spain.
'We take the hits and try to get better.'
Though Zuckerberg termed the regulatory defeat 'disappointing for the mission and a major setback,' he said every country was different, and 'the model that has worked in one country may not work in another.'
This was his third appearance at the Barcelona show to promote Internet access to everyone in the world.
He has argued that online connections can improve lives and fuel economic development.
To achieve that goal, Zuckerberg has high-flying dreams for someday providing Internet connections through a network of drones, satellites and lasers.
Zuckerberg said Monday that Internet.org would launch its first satellite over Africa this year and 'we are about to test flying Internet drone solar planes that can fly three months a year.'
While the drones may someday connect people in areas too remote for cables or cell towers, Free Basics is intended for people who live in areas with Internet service but still can't afford it.
Facebook works with wireless carriers in poorer nations to let people use streamlined versions of Facebook and certain other online services, without paying data charges.
The report said improving access 'is a major challenge that will require the cooperation of many stakeholders through innovation and investment.'
A low-income resident of urban Manila, for example, can use Free Basics to view the Philippines' GMA News site. 'He can be informed. He can research. He can read the news,' Ederic Eder of GMA News said.
The program varies by country, in offerings and effectiveness.
In South Africa, for instance, Facebook partnered with the third-largest wireless carrier, Cell C. But Johannesburg resident Priscilla de Klerk said she couldn't get Free Basics to work on her phone.
'Cell C is much cheaper as far as everything else is concerned, but their free Facebook is not a reality,' she said.
Last fall, Facebook announced a major expansion in Africa, where another regional carrier, Bharti Airtel, said it will offer Free Basics in 17 countries.
'They're getting a lot of traction in Africa,' said Danson Njue, a Kenya-based telecom analyst with the Ovum research firm.
Tech rivals Google and Microsoft also have programs to expand Internet access, he noted, but their approaches are content neutral and involve extending networks to underserved areas.
Facebook doesn't pay wireless companies for the cost of Free Basics. Carriers make money if new users eventually move to a paid data plan. Facebook also says it makes no money, as it doesn't show ads, though Zuckerberg has conceded it benefits from gaining users in the long run.
While the company hasn't released detailed usage figures, Facebook says Free Basics has brought more than 19 million people online for the first time. That counts any user who didn't have Internet access before, regardless of whether they're currently active.
On the Internet.org website, mixed in with videos about impoverished students using Free Basics to study and laborers starting small businesses, Facebook boasts more than 1 billion people 'have access' to the service. That's the combined population of regions where it's available, not the number of users.
Free Basics is now in 36 countries.
It was suspended last year in Egypt, on the anniversary of anti-government protests that were organized partly on Facebook.
FACEBOOK'S AI POPULATION MAPS
Figure 1A: Existing Population Distribution (Gridded Population of the World Dataset (GPW) of a coastal region in Kenya.
Facebook is collaborating with the Center for International Earth Science Information Network at Columbia University to produce detailed maps showing the population distribution of 20 countries.
These maps were created using new machine learning techniques and show the most accurate estimates of population distribution and settlements available to date.
'This data will give us a greater understanding of how populations are dispersed, so governments and others can prioritize investments in infrastructure, from transportation to healthcare and education,' Facebook said.
'It can also help rapid response times during emergencies and other disasters and inform our understanding of the ecological impact of growth.'
Figure 1B: New Facebook estimates of population distribution based on processing of third party satellite images, of the same region shown in figure 1A.
An earlier version of Free Basics, known as Facebook Zero, was shuttered three years ago in Chile, after authorities said Internet providers couldn't offer discounts for accessing some content but not others.
Similar concerns turned India into the program's biggest battleground.
Free Basics enrolled more than 1 million Indians in its first year, according to Facebook's wireless partner, Reliance Communications.
But critics, including many in the country's growing tech community, complained it was a predatory scheme: If low-income users couldn't afford anything besides Free Basics, opponents said, that meant Facebook was deciding which online services the nation's poor could use.
'The government should not allow big players to monopolize the Internet,' said Manu Sharma, who runs a software development company in New Delhi.
Facebook responded last fall by announcing it would open Free Basics to any app that met its technical requirements for systems with limited capacity.
Zuckerberg also changed the program's name to Free Basics, after critics complained 'Internet.org' sounded like a nonprofit, when it's part of a for-profit company (the overall campaign is still called Internet.org).
But opponents still worry that Facebook could change requirements at any time, force competitors to pay higher rates to get into the program, or even block services that run afoul of powerful politicians.
'The fact that it could decide what apps could be hosted ... was a huge problem for me,' said Basit Zaidi, a New Delhi attorney.
As Indian regulators began studying the issue, Facebook drew more resentment with a public-relations blitz that critics called heavy-handed and patronizing.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg waves to the audience as he arrives for a speech at the Mobile World Congress wireless show in Barcelona, Spain, Monday, Feb. 22, 2016. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
The regulators effectively banned Free Basics after concluding Internet providers shouldn't be allowed to charge different rates for certain services, because that discriminates against other content.
U.S. regulators have endorsed the concept of 'net neutrality,' which says all websites and apps should be treated equally by Internet providers.
They're now studying whether 'zero rating' programs, which offer some content for free, should be allowed. Net neutrality supporters are hoping India's decision will influence other nations.
Facebook has also launched a program that helps Internet providers offer reliable Wi-Fi service in underserved areas at affordable rates and without limits on content. The program's been limited to tests in a few countries.
The giant tech company could use its resources and clout with carriers to offer a similar wireless service, perhaps at limited speeds or volume, but without any restrictions on content, said Josh Levy of Access Now, a nonprofit that supports net neutrality.
Zuckerberg has suggested in the past that such a service would be too expensive and difficult to offer.
Some Indians, meanwhile, say their country could have benefited from Free Basics.
'Ultimately, something is better than nothing, even if that something is flawed,' said Uday Singh Tomar, a software engineer in New Delhi.
'If a person is hungry and getting nothing, a free meal is good enough.'
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