14 DAY TRIAL // Mark Zuckerberg has already expressed his desire to connect everyone in the world to the Internet, so it should come as no surprise that a new pilot program launched by Facebook aims to provide free wireless Internet to students.
The news comes about a year after unveiling Internet.org, an organization backed by Facebook that seeks to make Internet available for everyone. The partnership introduced on Tuesday isn’t exactly connected to the NGO, but it shares a goal of bringing people online.
The lucky users of free WiFi are the students of the Rutherford County School District in Forest City, in North Carolina, close by to one of the company‘s data centers.
This is quite likely the very first step towards building more similar partnerships with schools across the United States. It all depends on how things go down and whether the pilot is successful.
“We’re hoping this program will build on the school system’s 1:1 initiative, which provides a personal laptop to every middle and high school student in the district. More than 6,000 students have received a laptop so far through that program, but administration officials have found that nearly half of those students don’t have access to the Internet at home. Working together, we want to close that gap – we want all of our students to be able to take full advantage of the 1:1 program and use the Internet both at school and at home,” Facebook’s Keven McCammon, site data center manager, said.
If the pilot is successful, Facebook will expand the program to more students in the district, which is another step towards accomplishing the larger goal.
The company is urging those who are in the area to test the program by joining the free “Connect” network. Facebook is partnering with both the school district and PANGAEA Internet, a local Internet provider in North Carolina. To kick things off, the test includes between 75 and 100 homes, but the number is certainly going to grow soon.
Perhaps the new project will also help Facebook win over some of the teenagers that it has been losing in recent months. Although the company has denied that things were too bad, there’s been a dropping interest in the platform from the younger demographic, particularly since everyone seems to have an account nowadays, including their parents and other relatives.
Connecting to the Facebook-provided WiFi won’t take people directly to the social network, but knowing the source may get people to visit the site at least.