Facebook founder’s mission to bring internet to the whole world

The project is called Internet.org and was launched yesterday. It focuses on enabling the next five billion people without access to come online, Zuckerberg said.

“The goal of Internet.org is to make internet access available to the two-thirds of the world who are not yet connected and to bring the same opportunities to everyone that the connected third of the world has today,” said Zuckerberg.

Other players in the project include Ericsson, MediaTek, Nokia, and Opera Software ASA .

The partnership will develop lower-cost, higher-quality smartphones and deploy internet access in under-served communities, Facebook said.

Google said in June that it had launched a small network of balloons over the Southern Hemisphere in an experiment it hopes could bring reliable internet access to the world’s most remote regions.

That pilot programme, Project Loon, took off in June from New Zealand’s South Island, using solar-powered balloons that ride the wind about 12.5 miles, or twice as high as airplanes, above the ground, Google said.