Popular social network Facebook has partnered with telecoms infrastructure company Ericsson to expand the reach of internet access to emerging markets.
The partnership is expected to see the formation of a joint innovation lab dubbed "The Internet Innovation Lab", which aims to support Facebook's Internet.org initiative.
The lab is planned to be opened in the second half of 2014.
Launched last year, Facebook's Internet.org initiative was formed with the goal of making internet access available to two-thirds of the world without internet access.
The initiative; therefore, seeks to drive down costs and boost adoption.
And the Ericsson lab is set to help boost Facebook’s efforts in this endeavour, particularly with regard to helping app developers create software suited for emerging markets.
Jay Parikh, vice president of infrastructure engineering at Facebook said, "With this lab developers will be able to simulate network conditions typically found in new markets, giving them an environment to test and optimise their applications under a number of different scenarios."
Johan Wibergh, executive vice president and Ericsson's head of business unit networks said, “The goals of internet.org are very much aligned with our long-standing ideal that communictions is a basic human need."
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