Facebook in Inda

Speaking at the inauguration of Internet.org on October 9, the Facebook CEO said that connectivity is a human right and that everyone should be entitled to Internet access. New Delhi was chosen to host the first summit of Internet.org, a partnership between Facebook and six mobile phone companies, including Samsung, Ericsson, MediaTek, Nokia, Opera Software, and Qualcomm, that is aimed at providing accessible Internet access, to host the organization's first summit.

Zuckerberg also said that of the 1.3 billion people in India, only 243 million have access to the web, outlining the various difficulties the country faces and saying that Internet.org and Facebook want to help overcome them. On October 10, he met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss how his company could help the Indian government with its 'Digital India' project, an initiative that, among other things, includes a plan to connect rural areas under high-speed Internet networks.

Insufficiencies

However, the government's plan has to overcome a series of obstacles. First, the number of people having access to Internet in the South Asian nation is very low at just 19 percent. More than one billion people in the country don't have access at all. That is because "India still lacks a robust telecommunication infrastructure with sufficient reliable bandwidth for Internet connection," Nilotpal Chakravarti, associate vice president of Internet and Mobile Association of India told DW.

And out of those who have access - some 252 million total Internet subscribers - only 61 million have 'broadband,' with speeds above 512 kbps. The vast majority of subscribers have mobile Internet: some 233 million people use the Internet on their phones, with an average speed of 1.4 mbps, estimated to be the lowest in the Asia-Pacific region.

"Faster networks, better machines and software as well as more capable professionals are required," Chakravarti stressed. But there is no available funding to support these developments, he added. Furthermore, the expert pointed out that upgrading hardware and software is difficult due to high costs.

These are some of the reasons for the widening of the digital divide in the country, despite the rapid growth of the Internet, he explained.

Prasanto Roy, a New Delhi-based technology writer, told DW that Internet access "has not been a high priority for past governments." Although there were targets and government projects, they largely failed as they were just isolated attempts.

While economics and infrastructure play a role, Zuckerberg said that raising awareness about the benefits of the Internet among the population is of utmost importance to increase Internet usage in the country. He noted that 69 percent of the people that are 'offline' in India claim to not know why the Internet would be useful to them.

A lack of content in local languages is one of the main reasons for this situation, says Roy, underlining that most Internet content is in English, which only some 10 percent of Indians are proficient in. There is therefore a necessity to develop content in local Indian languages for the Internet penetration in the country to increase.

Helping out?

This is something that the Internet.org is aiming to help with. During his speech, Zuckerberg launched a competition named the "Innovation Challenge: India," aiming to promote the development of apps, websites and online services.

In addition to this, Zuckerberg spoke of replicating the experiences of the Internet.org app, which gives free Internet access to services such as Facebook, Google search and Wikipedia in countries such as Indonesia, Philippines and Paraguay.

Although the main goal is to increase Facebook penetration in India, it will also help boost the number of people using the Internet, said Roy, adding that full Internet access is currently available to around 100 million users and the figure is expected to reach about 200 million by the end of 2016.