In brief: Meta says it is committed to servicing people everywhere, even those without affordable or reliable internet access. The company has invested in various partnerships to build new connectivity infrastructures, which helps communities while growing its business.
Meta is working on different levels to enhance internet connectivity and networking reliability around the planet. The company has invested billions in new subsea infrastructures, laying the "mother of all submarine cables" across three different oceans. Meta is also partnering with the Internet Society to build a novel infrastructure to provide affordable internet to people without access.
The Internet Society is a non-profit organization focused on a multi-year strategy to provide connectivity in underserved communities. In partnership with Meta, the organization plans to invest $30 million through 2030 to enhance efforts in developing sustainable internet access. Meta, led by Mark Zuckerberg, is the first co-funding partner in this initiative, but the organization is actively seeking additional partners to support its global vision.
Around 2.6 billion people still lack reliable access to the internet, which prevents them from benefiting from education, healthcare, and other digital platforms. The Internet Society is leveraging its expertise to address this issue, building on an existing partnership with Meta that began in 2018. The two organizations have developed 56 new Internet Exchange Points, creating connectivity hubs in 45 countries.
The newly announced Co-Funding Initiative will focus on community-centered infrastructure to address market gaps and provide training to develop new technical personnel. The Internet believes these "sustained" networks should be locally owned, scalable, and designed to promote self-reliance within underserved communities.
According to Internet Society President and CEO Sally Wentworth, the new partnership with Meta exemplifies how collective action can help build internet opportunities for more than 2 billion people worldwide. The organization hopes to leverage Big Tech's voracious appetite for new users and potential customers to raise money for its efforts.
The need to bring more people online is a common goal among many technology corporations. Google recently began work on silicon photonic solutions designed to bring high-speed access to underdeveloped areas.