Facebook rolls out Express Wi-Fi in India, partners Airtel

May 5, 2017

New Delhi, May 5: Facebook is tying up with entrepreneurs to set up Wi-Fi hotspots in public places across the country, in an attempt to end India"s poor connectivity problem.

markCalled Express Wi-Fi, the programme will see Facebook helping entrepreneurs set up public Wi-Fi hotspots to provide Internet connectivity to people in poor or zero connectivity areas.

“We are working with ISPs and operator partners to test Express Wi-Fi with public Wi-Fi deployments in multiple pilot sites,” said Munish Seth, head of connectivity solutions for Asia Pacific at Facebook, adding that now customers will be able to purchase fast, reliable and affordable data packs in four states—Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Meghalaya—across 700 hotspots and 500 retailers.

Express Wi-Fi will be rolled out in partnership with ISPs AirJaldi in Uttarakhand, LMES in Rajasthan, Tikona in Gujarat, and Shaildhar in Meghalaya.

Seth said that Facebook was working with Airtel to install 20,000 more hotspots across the country.

Express Wi-Fi is already live in Indonesia, Tanzania, Kenya and Nigeria.

Explaining how Express Wi-Fi works, Seth said that Facebook will provide the software stack to the entrepreneurs, data analytics and in some cases funds to help start operations. The entrepreneur can choose any Internet service provider (ISP) to provide the Wi-Fi connectivity to the hotspot.

“We will recommend ISPs based on our tests and usually the speed of the Wi-Fi has to be somewhat around 10mbps,” Seth said, adding, that if someone wants to use the Wi-Fi, they will have to buy a data card and use it on their devices.

“Anyone can access the Express Wi-Fi network by signing up with an Express Wi-Fi retailer and purchasing a daily, weekly or monthly data pack at a rate set by our partners. They will then be able to connect to the Express Wi-Fi hotspot, register/create an account, log in and start browsing or use any app,” Seth explained.

He said that “this will kill the need for owning 4G devices and that will be immensely helpful for India where 4G is catching up fast but has a long way to go before it becomes mainstream.”

However, Seth didn"t clarify how Facebook would generate revenue but said that the company was providing the software stack and analytics free of cost to entrepreneurs.

“It is similar to the cybercafe model that thrived around a decade back,” said Sanchit Vir Gogia, chief analyst at Greyhound Research.

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Agencies
March 3,2020

Facebook on Monday launched a new consumer marketing campaign in India titled 'More Together'. India is the first country in the Asia Pacific region where such a campaign is being rolled out.

It is also the first time that Facebook is rolling out a 'high decibel campaign of this stature in India', the company said in a statement.

It is also the first time that Facebook is rolling out a 'high decibel campaign of this stature in India', the company said in a statement.

"India is at the heart of Facebook and one of our focus areas this year is to tell the exciting story of a service that is deeply embedded in the fabric of India," said Ajit Mohan, Vice President and Managing Director, Facebook India.

The campaign would have multiple campaigns over the next few weeks in eight languages and the one will be set in the context of Holi.

Facebook in 2019 introduced a new company logo to further distinguish the company from the Facebook app.

The company recently announced the appointment of Avinash Pant as the Marketing Director for India operations, to drive the consumer marketing efforts across the family of apps.

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Agencies
June 22,2020

Chennai, Jun 22: Commuting the death sentence to life imprisonment for five convicts, the Madras High Court on Monday set free Chinnasamy, the main convict, who had also been sentenced to death in the Udumalpet Shankar honour killing case.

A Division Bench comprising Justice M. Sathyanarayanan and Justice M. Nirmal Kumar also dismissed the appeal by the state police against the acquittal of three persons by a lower court.

The Bench ordered the five convicts sentenced for life to undergo a jail term of not less than 25 years.

In 2016, V. Shankar, who had married C. Kausalya, was killed by a gang in Udumalpet in Tamil Nadu. The gang also injured Kausalya in the attack.

It was alleged the parents of Kausalya -- Chinnasamy, Annalakshmi -- were against the marriage.

P. Pandidurai, the uncle of Kausalya at the behest of Chinnasamy and Annalakshmi had hired a gang to kill Shankar.

The gang killed Shankar in broad daylight in a public place and Kausalya too got injured in the attack as she tried to save her husband.

The Principal District and Sessions Court in Tiruppur had convicted and sentenced to death six accused persons -- Chinnasamy, P. Jagadeesan, P. Selvakumar, M. Manikandan, M. Mathan alias Michael and P. Kalaithamilvaanan.

The court also sentenced two other accused, K. Dhanraj for life and Manikandan to a five year jail term, while acquitting Annalakshmi, Pandidurai and Prasanna.

The convicts had filed an appeal against their sentence in the Madras High Court while the police filed an appeal against the acquittal of three persons.

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News Network
March 18,2020

San Francisco, Mar 18: Facebook said a bug in its anti-spam system temporarily blocked the publication of links to news stories about the coronavirus. Guy Rosen, Facebook's vice president of integrity, said on Twitter Tuesday that the company was working on a fix for the problem.

Users complained that links to news stories about school closings and other information related to the virus outbreak were blocked by the company's automated system.

Later on Tuesday, Rosen tweeted that Facebook had restored all the incorrectly deleted posts, which also covered topics beyond the coronavirus.

Rosen said the problems were unrelated to any changes in Facebook's content-moderator workforce. The company reportedly sent its human moderators home this week because of the coronavirus outbreak.

A representative for Facebook did not immediately respond to questions on the status of Facebook's content moderators, many of whom do not work directly for the company and are not always able to work from home.

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