Launched on August 20 2013 by Facebook 2/3rd of the world is not connected to internet. Only 243 million in India are connected to internet. Initiative by Facebook and 7 Mobile Phone Companies (Samsung,

Qualcomm, Ericsson, Mediatek, Microsoft, Reliance and Opera Software) Connectivity drives productivity In developing countries, FREE INTERNET ACCESS TO SMART PHONE AND FEATURE

PHONE Already been launched in Kenya, Colombia, Ghana, Tanzania and Zambia RCom is telecom service provider in India India is the 6th country for Internet.org RCom subscribers in India will be able to access free internet through internet.org Only 38 websites (mix of education, news, music, weather and health sites) Some websites are : AccuWeather, Facts for life, AmarUjala.com, Hungamaplay,

Aajtak, Wikipedia, TimesJob, JagranJosh, Facebook etc. Currently live in Maharashtra, Tamilnadu, Gujrat, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh Launch Dates and Locations:

July 2014- Zambia with AirtelOct 2014- Tanzania with TigoNov 2014- Kenya with AirtelJan 2015- Colombia with TigoJan 2015- Ghana with Airtel10 Feb 205- India with RCom

Upto May 2015, 8 Lakh users in India are using Internet.org in 7 circles and 800 million people worldwide in 9 countries.

“The goal of Internet.org is to allow more people to experience the benefits of being online... The Internet.org Platform aims to give people valuable free services that they can use to discover the entire wealth of online services and, ultimately become paying users of the Internet,” the spokesperson said.

The new Internet users acquired by Internet.org are now consuming over 100 MB of data a month outside of Internet.org, that is, paying for data from Reliance.

Other Accessibility Initiatives

1. Facebook Zero- May 2010, text only version of Fb. In collaboration with 50 mobile phone based internet providers

2. Project Loon- Jun 2013, The Idea of the project is to place high-altitude balloons in the stratosphere to create a wireless network operating at 3G like speeds

3. Google Free Zone- Nov 2012, To waive off data charges for accessing selected google products like Google Search, Google Plus and Gmail. Launched in India in Jun 2013 in collaboration with Airtel

NET NEUTRALITY

First coined in 2003 by Colombia University Professor. Net Neutrality or Net Equality is basically the guiding principle of Internet. It promotes open Internet which means that Internet users have the right to access any kind of information present on the web and communicate freely. According to this concept, ISPs should treat all data on internet equally. There should be no discrimination or differential charging by user, content, application, mode of communication etc. The internet is a level playing field for all.