Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a plan to provide free Internet service for the five billion people on the planet without it, USA Today reported.
The project, named Internet.org, is a collaboration of the social media giant along with Samsung Electronics, Qualcomm, Nokia and others. Currently, 2.7 billion on Earth have access to the Internet, which accounts for one-third of the planet's population.
Zuckerberg made the announcement with a detailed plan outlining the various obstacles and the project's vision. Other partners of Internet.org include Ericsson, MediaTek and Opera. The joint-project members will begin sharing knowledge and mobilizing resources to complete their goal.
"The Internet is such an important thing for driving humanity forward, but it's not going to build itself," Zuckerberg told the New York Times. "Ultimately, this has to make business sense on some time frame that people can get behind."
Google has attempted this type of project before, with weather balloon-type objects. The Facebook CEO said it is too big an undertaking for one company.
"No one company can really do this by itself," he said.
Internet.org's plan includes working with cell phone companies to provide basic Internet functions like email, web search and social media for little or no charge.
Called Project Loon, Google launched its own Internet balloons in a remote part of New Zealand mid-June to test their ability. The experiment gave access to a farmer in a remote part of the country where an Internet connection could not previously be established.
According to the AP, Google's balloons would fly high and out of sight, but also out of the way of airplanes and other flying objects. The project would, however, be very expensive for Google to pursue on a global level.
Zuckerberg stressed to the Times that basic health care is more important than low-cost Internet access, saying, "if you can afford a phone, I think it would be really good for you to have access to the Internet."
Zuckerberg is also not concerned with turning a profit on the project. Facebook gets most of its revenue from advertising that it shows to its millions and millions of users.
"We're focused on it more because we think it's something good for the world," he said, "rather than something that is going to be really amazing for our profits."
