Meta has announced that it is shutting down its Express Wi-Fi program. Express Wi-Fi program offers cheaper internet service in select countries. The company didn’t provide any reason why it has decided to shut down the service.
“Together with our partners, we helped expand public Wi-Fi access for people in more than 30 countries via the Express Wi-Fi platform,” the company said. “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.”
The Express Wi-Fi program was launched back in 2016 with the aim to provide internet connectivity to areas with poor internet connections or no connection at all. It also launched in India but its older Free Basics program was rejected by India’s Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).
Express Wi-Fi program worked with local ISPs, carriers, and entrepreneurs of different countries for offering internet access through local hotspots. Now when the company is shutting down the program, it would work with partners to minimize the impact of the discontinuation of the program on their businesses.
The aim of the Express Wi-Fi program was to bring the next one billion users. Zuckerberg claimed that the program will also bring more job opportunities and help people get access to different online services. The execution of the program wasn’t good enough and it failed to achieve its goal.
