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Zuckerberg: Facebook’s mission is to connect everyone

BARCELONA, Spain – Claiming everybody should have access to the Internet, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg discussed projects his company is working on designed to provider greater access to the Web.

“Facebook’s mission is to connect everyone in the world,” Zuckerberg said during a speech at this week’s Mobile World Congress event.

Recently, Facebook-backed Free Basics (formerly Internet.org) was banned in India following the service launch in February 2015.

“It was disappointing,” Zuckerberg said at a keynote session. “But the main learning is that each country is different. We are continuing to deploy it in other countries and in India we focus on other programs.”

Facebook has been working on several projects to enhance Internet access around the world, including developing Aquila drones and the Telecom Infra Project.

“There are 4 billion people in the world that don’t have access to the Internet,” Zuckerberg noted.

Speaking to telecom operators, Zuckerberg, who was spotted jogging around the Gothic District in the host city earlier this week, said his company is not moving into the Internet service provider business.

“We have a great business model that we like,” Zuckerberg explained. “We want to put people on the Internet. I built Facebook because I wanted to connect people in my college.”

At the keynote session, Zuckerberg repeated comments made at an earlier Samsung event on how virtual reality will change the way people interact. VR, he said, is becoming the trend people will use to express themselves to those they care about. Next-generation mobile networks based on “5G” technology will be crucial when users begin to share their whole experiences via live streaming.

“It will require a full upgrade of the network, because it consumes a lot of bandwidth,” Zuckerberg said.

Mobile video is the next big thing for Facebook and Zuckerberg said he hopes the company gets it right the first time.

Editor’s note: Samsung has provided travel costs to the MWC.

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Roberta Prescott
Roberta Prescott
Editor, [email protected] Roberta Prescott is responsible for Latin America reporting news and analysis, interviewing key stakeholders. Roberta has worked as an IT and telecommunication journalist since March 2005, when she started as a reporter with InformationWeek Brasil magazine and its website IT Web. In July 2006, Prescott was promoted to be the editor-in-chief, and, beyond the magazine and website, was in charge for all ICT products, such as IT events and CIO awards. In mid-2010, she was promoted to the position of executive editor, with responsibility for all the editorial products and content of IT Mídia. Prescott has worked as a journalist since 1998 and has three journalism prizes. In 2009, she won, along with InformationWeek Brasil team, the press prize 11th Prêmio Imprensa Embratel. In 2008, she won the 7th Unisys Journalism Prize and in 2006 was the editor-in-chief when InformationWeek Brasil won the 20th media award Prêmio Veículos de Comunicação. She graduated in Journalism by the Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Campinas, has done specialization in journalism at the Universidad de Navarra (Spain, 2003) and Master in Journalism at IICS – Universidad de Navarra (Brazil, 2010) and MBA – Executive Education at the Getulio Vargas Foundation.