Facebook To Launch Satellite As Part Of Its Internt.org Program

As part of its Internet.org program which is intended to bring internet service to some of the most rural places on earth, Mark Zuckerberg announced recently that Facebook was partnering with a French company Eutelsat to launch a satellite into orbit that will connect millions of people.

In June, Senegal became the sixth African nation to benefit from the internet.org service.

“As part of our collaboration with Eutelsat, a new satellite called AMOS-6 is going to provide internet coverage to large parts of Sub-Saharan Africa. The AMOS-6 satellite is under construction now and will launch in 2016 into a geostationary orbit that will cover large parts of West, East and Southern Africa. We’re going to work with local partners across these regions to help communities begin accessing internet services provided through satellite.” said Zuckerberg in a Facebook post.

In the internet.org app, there’s limit to what users can access but tools like health and financial services are currently allowed within the app. Facebook went ahead to allow third party applications with some restrictions. Some bandwidth applications like VoIP and Video won’t be allowed for now on it.

Just this past April, Facebook announced that it was testing the possibility of beaming internet services using drones.