Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has told the audience of the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona telecommunications operators are the real companies driving the push to bring the developing world online, not his social network.
It was just one of the ways Zuckerberg used his keynote speech at the second day of the conference to assure telcos Facebook was not chasing their business in the developing world, according to Wired.
Facebook recently launched its Internet.org initiative to help people in countries like India access free basic internet services, such as Facebook, health information, and educational resources.
Wired reports the move was a scary proposition for the world’s largest telecommunications companies because they stood to lose money from giving the service they offered away for free.
But Zuckerberg used his speech to reassure telco operators Facebook wanted to work with them, rather than undercutting their business.
“It’s important not to lose sight of the fact that the real companies that are driving this are the operators and all the investments they’re putting together,” said Zuckerberg.
Meanwhile, the second day of the conference also saw mobile giant Nokia announce a slew of new offerings focused around predictive analytics.
The new offerings will enable telecommunication operators to analyse and predict a range of factors, from customer behaviour to potential network irregularities that could impact the delivery of their service.
Kirsten Robb is a former journalist at SmartCompany. Previously, she worked at News Corp as a property reporter for Leader Newspapers and the Herald Sun, and holds a Masters of Journalism at Melbourne University.
