Meta is winding down its Express Wi-Fi program whose mission in part was to extend Wi-Fi by partnering with mobile network operators, local communities and entrepreneurs.
Launched as Facebook’s Express Wi-Fi more than five years ago, the program helped expand public Wi-Fi access in dozens of countries. It was headed by the same Connectivity section of the company that spearheaded the Telecom Infra Project (TIP) and Terragraph.
The program partnered with mobile network operators, satellite companies and internet service providers in places like South Africa and the Philippines.
Meta apparently decided it’s time to focus on developing other projects.
“Together with our partners, we helped expand public Wi-Fi access for people in more than 30 countries via the Express Wi-Fi platform. While we are concluding our work on this program to focus on developing other projects, we remain committed to working with partners across the telecom ecosystem to deliver better connectivity,” a Meta company spokesperson said in a statement.
Launched in 2016, Express Wi-Fi functioned as a cloud-based SaaS management platform enabling Wi-Fi operators to build, operate, grow and monetize their Wi-Fi business in a scalable way. At the same time, their customers could get access to speedy internet, which only helps Meta’s cause. Its vendor partners in the early days were Arista, Cambium Networks and Ruckus.
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The company said that as it concludes work on the program later this year, it will work closely with Express Wi-Fi partners to minimize the impact to their businesses while keeping networks running.