Express Wi-Fi in India - Facebook offers affordable, fast internet

Announced on Thursday, the commercial launch of Express Wi-Fi, an initiative part of Internet.org, through which it is offering "millions" of Indians access to the entire web at an "affordable" fee. 

Service is commercially available in four Indian states of Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Meghalaya, where the company claims to have installed around 700 hotspots. Express Wi-Fi program is available in four other countries: Kenya, Nigeria, Indonesia, and Tanzania.

In a conversation with Mashable recently, Munish Seth, the regional head for company’s connectivity solutions in APAC region, said the company has partnered with a slew of local entrepreneurs, and internet service providers for offering data access through Express Wi-Fi program. 

Today, the company announced it has also partnered with Airtel, India’s largest telecom operator (for now) to launch an additional 20,000 hotspots. The company has also partnered with local ISPs such as AirJaldi in Uttarakhand, LMES in Rajasthan, and Tikona in Gujarat.

The company says its local entrepreneur partners will sell data vouchers priced at Rs 10 to Rs 20 (15 to 30 cents) for a day-long access (Rs 200 to Rs 300 for a month). The vouchers will be available to purchase through online and offline stores. 

"Express Wi-Fi is designed to complement mobile data offerings by providing a low-cost, high bandwidth alternative for getting online and access apps, download and stream content," wrote Seth in a blog post. 

India is the fastest growing market for Facebook. As of last month, Facebook's marquee platform had 184 million monthly active users in the country, 50 percent of which return to the site every day. The company's instant messaging and voice calling app WhatsApp also has over 200 million monthly active users in India. 

"Our Express Wi-Fi partnerships empower local Indian entrepreneurs to start businesses to offer internet access to their town or region. They also help Indians connect to the internet easily and for an affordable rate." Seth added. 

Early signs of Express Wi-Fi were spotted in villages in India last year, months after the domestic government banned Free Basics on the grounds of net neutrality. Though Seth says the company has been testing the service since 2015. 

With Free Basics, which is live in nearly two dozen territories worldwide, Facebook offers access to select websites and services for free. Facebook is steering itself clear of those approaches this time. 

The approach it has taken with Express Wi-Fi is similar to Google’s, which offers free Wi-Fi at several railway stations in India, analysts say. "Facebook's approach is similar to Google's Wi-Fi efforts in India, for which it has partnered with state-run RailTel," said Prasanto K Roy, VP and Head of Internet, Mobile and E-commerce Council at Nasscom.

"Their [Google's and Facebook's] objective is to create a framework which is replicable. They are not getting into the internet service providers business," he added. 

Also for both companies, it is increasingly becoming clear that success in India is crucial for their growth. In addition to offering free Wi-Fi at over 100 railway stations, Google is also moulding its apps and services to cater to the local needs.

With much of India yet to get online, both Facebook and Google see the country as a place to further grow of their respective userbases, Roy added. 

"Our goal is to grow the number of Express Wi-Fi hotspots in India rapidly. India has a population of about 1.3 billion people, but according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI’s) Performance Indicator Report, only 390 million people are connected to the internet," Facebook's Seth added.