Facebook has long been promoting the the idea of free, zero-rated mobile services in emerging countries to drive more Facebook (and wider mobile data) usage. Now, working under its Internet.org initiative, it has crafted another way to promote growth: by working with directly with carriers to analyse and fix their networks, with a recent trial of the work in Indonesia speeding up network speeds by 70%, the company says.
We've asked Facebook if it has plans to extend this project into other markets, and if so which ones. It highlights an interesting evolution in Facebook's role abroad. While helping make its service more accessible in developing markets, it's also setting out a role for itself as a friend and partner to carriers. Working directly with carriers to fix their networks will help raise Facebook's profile with them, and potentially give it more negotiating power when considering services like zero-rating and more.
The social network carried out the project in Indonesia via its Internet.org initiative, along with Ericsson (another Internet.org member) and Indonesian mobile operator XL Axiata. You can see the full results in a white paper it has published.
This was not a random choice of country or carrier: Indonesia is the fourth-largest country for Facebook usage, and XL Axiata says that Facebook is by far the most popular service among subscribers who use mobile data (over half their base is currently paying for mobile data services).
The idea behind the work in Indonesia is this. Zero-rated Facebook access certainly lowers the gates for people, but it doesn't tackle one of the bigger problems that prevent zero-rating from working: many carriers in emerging markets simply lack the infrastructure or funds to invest in the fastest data networks.
Facebook, working with Ericsson and XL Axiata, created a methodology to 'analyze, monitor and improve end-to-end network performance' - not on the live network but using simulated Facebook application use cases. The tests and improvements, incidentally, were all carried out on Android devices (a signal in itself of just how dominant the platform is for smartphone usage in emerging markets).
Over the first six months of 2014, the three developed a process to simulate app use: 'using a test agent developed by Facebook, typical Facebook interactions were triggered and measured on different mobile devices in urban, suburban and rural regions across the XL Axiata coverage area,' the white paper on the project notes.
It also developed a series of metrics that measured activity and bottlenecks in XL Axiata's radio access network, core network, and content delivery network.
After seeing the results, the three made network-wide 'adjustments' that sped up the network by 70%. The idea here is not to lay on more infrastructure investments, but to work on fine-tuning what is already there. 'We now know that it is possible to increase network performance using existing network resources, which is key to helping close the connectivity gap,' the company notes in a blog post.
Facebook is also trying to tackle the connectivity from another angle: the company has hosted a hackathon in Indonesia's capital, Jakarta, focused specifically on creating apps that are more data-efficient for markets where decent data connectivity is in shorter supply or is too expensive.
The work is being made public while Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg travels in the country and meets with its president-elect and current Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo.
Image: Flickr
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