People in the Philippines will have mobile Internet access thanks to a campaign started by Facebook

Mar 20, 2015 15:28 GMT  ·  By

Facebook announced some time ago that they had come up with an application that would provide Internet access to the people living in the Philippines also, following an initiative meant to help those who cannot afford these services.

But Facebook is not alone in this crusade as Smart Communications has partnered up in order to expand their campaign called "Internet for All," which, just as the name suggests it, is meant to increase the number of people who have access to Internet services, given that statistics have shown that in the Philippines only about 38 % of the population can access the Internet.

The application is called Internet.org and it will allow mobile phone users to access different sites such as Wikipedia, bing.com, as well as some weather sites for instance, keeping them informed at all times about the things going on around them and helping them assimilate more information they could not obtain otherwise.

What is more, they will also have access to Facebook and Facebook Messenger.

Why the Internet matters

Though some might disagree, Internet access can really improve the quality of life for people living in the Philippines.

Mark Zuckerberg even wrote on his Facebook page that "We're one step closer to connecting the world as we launched Internet.org in the Philippines today. Now everyone in the country can have free access to internet services for health, education, jobs and communication on the Smart network."

However, the idea was not well received by everybody, there are people who cannot praise this initiative and see it just as a way to make more money from the advertisements.

There is no way of telling whether the people from the Philippines will actually benefit from Facebook’s new move or not, but there are a few other countries where the application has already been introduced, namely Colombia, Ghana, Tanzania, Kenya, India and Zambia.

Furthermore, if you go on Internet.org, you will be able to find videos of happy Zambians, for instance, who show the way their life has changed after having been granted access to the Internet.