【Priyani (2021) Hindi Short Film】

Facebook’s Free Basics initiative experienced quite a blow in September,Priyani (2021) Hindi Short Film when a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket explodedat Cape Canaveral. The rocket was just a few days shy of launching the Amos-6 communication satellite into orbit, which would have let Facebook beam broadband to sub-Saharan Africa.

Since the launch of Facebook Free Basics in 2013 (previously called Internet.org), the company has been on a mission to bestow internet to people around the world by granting them free access to a handful of Facebook-approved websites. To date, Facebook has signed up 48 countries for its initiative. And about half those countries are in Africa, boasting a combined population of around 635 million.

So evidently, the no-go rocket has been a pretty big hinderance on Facebook’s plan to bring better internet to Africa. But really, the Free Basics satellite wouldn’t have been enough to successfully get sub-Saharan Africa online. People there (and everywhere, for that matter) need full access to the Internet through a powerful broadband connection — beyond just Facebook-vetted websites — in order to take hold of all the opportunities fast and working internet provides.

Internet for all is essentially Facebook for all

According to Facebook,Free Basics gives people without internet access to a range of online services — things like news, maternal health, travel, local jobs, communication and local government information. For example, Free Basics in Nigeria offers about about 30 websites for free, including Messenger, Wikipedia and Ask a Doctor.

However Facebook’s free internet initiative hasn’t always been welcomed with open arms. In February, India blocked Free Basicsaltogether, citing net neutrality issues. Indians were concerned Facebook was trying to determine exactly what the country looked at online in attempt to monopolize the internet.

“What Zuckerberg means by internet for all, is essentially Facebook for all, along with a few non-profit services thrown in to give it the appearance of philanthropy,” wrote Nikhil Pahwa, the founder of Indian telecommunication company Medianama, more than a year before Free Basics was banned.

There’s also been concern that Facebook’s Free Basics provides poor people with restricted access to the internet. Last year, 65 advocacy groups from 31 countries released an open letter to Mark Zuckerberg, calling then-Internet.org a "walled garden" in which the world’s poorest people only have access to a limited set of online services approved by Facebook and local carriers.

“In its present conception, Internet.org thereby violates the principles of net neutrality, threatening freedom of expression, equality of opportunity, security, privacy and innovation,” the letter states.

The need for an unrestricted internet

While sub-Saharan Africa has some of the lowest levels of internet accessin the world — in Guinea, Somalia, Burundi and Eritrea, less than 2 percent of the population have access —  Africa will boast the world’s largest workforce by 2040. If these people aren’t trained on how to use the internet, unemployment rates will skyrocket.

However poorer populations in sub-Saharan Africa need more than just Facebook’s free internet to do their work. They need access to a full, unrestricted internet. This gives them equal opportunity to discover new information, to innovate, to start businesses and all in all, to participate in today’s work environment. In fact, for every 1000 new subscribers to broadband internet, 80 new jobsare created.

But if Facebook Free Basics isn’t enough to truly bring sub-Saharan Africa online, what needs to be done instead? Broadband internet needs to be expanded throughout the continent, and according to the World Bank, this needs to be done through private long-term investment in internet infrastructure. The World Bank itself aims to help 35 countries develop affordable broadband internet for its residents by 2020, through helping to create investment frameworks and design investment-ready projects.

Broadband internet company YooMee Africa, for example, covered the entire city of Douala, Cameroon, with its base stations to provide fixed and mobile broadband internet access in just four months. They’ve also created a broadband connection at the University of Douala. Previously, the 70,000 students had to go to an internet cafe off campus for internet access.

So the point is clear: Private companies need to continue to invest in expanding fixed and mobile broadband connections throughout the African continent. It’s the only way to give people access to a faster and better internet, that’s not restricted by an American tech giant.

Scott Brown is the MD of UpRamp, a next gen startup accelerator sponsored by CableLabs designed to help emerging technology companies make deals within the global cable & broadband industry.