Facebook, Airtel tie up to launch 20k public wi-fi hotspots & it's not free

Idea is to offer internet services through public hotspots in rural parts in partnership with telcos

A year after social networking major Facebook pulled the plug on Free Basics, the company on Thursday launched another product under its Internet.org programme, ‘Express Wi-Fi’. 

It has got into a tie-up with Bharti Airtel to launch as many as 20,000 hotspots, the term for a physical location where people may get internet access, typically using Wi-Fi, via a wireless local area network, using a router connected to an internet service provider (ISP).

While Facebook did not elaborate, the company plans to get into similar tie-ups with other telcos, including Reliance Jio and Vodafone. They are in preliminary talks with