Facebook to Give Free WiFi to Sao Paulo Favela, Zuckerberg Says

Facebook cofounder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg says the social network plans to give free internet to the residents of the Heliopolis favela in Sao Paulo, Brazil's most populous city.

PANAMA CITY (Sputnik) – The announcement came after the Facebook CEO's meeting with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff in Panama. According to Zuckerberg, Rousseff shares his commitment to find more ways to collaborate in the sphere of technology and education.

"One project we announced today is a trial connectivity program in the Heliopolis favela in São Paulo. This is a low income neighborhood of around 200,000 people in Brazil's largest city. We're going to deliver fast free wifi to everyone in this community so they can access basic internet services on their phones — including free services around health, jobs, education and communication," Zuckerberg wrote on his Facebook page on Friday.

"The President and I both believe that everyone should share in the social and economic benefits of connectivity. We talked about the opportunities for technology to bring diverse communities closer together and also to improve education," Zuckerberg said in his Facebook post.

Earlier this week, speaking at the Second CEO Summit of the Americas in Panama City, Zuckerberg said that Facebook was launching a free internet project jointly with the administration of Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela.

The Internet.org project will allow Panama residents to get limited free access to the internet, particularly to online information relating to health, security, transport and education.