I once wrote a parable to make sense of the positions the various players were taking on Internet developments. After the dust settled, I expected them to work together to make money, rather than run behind the ITU or national governments asking for favors. Facebook has been explaining what it wants to do to make the Internet experience better for all users.
Subramanian outlined a couple of its many bold network initiatives it is working on to bring access to the estimated 4.2 billion people who aren’t connected. These include Aquila, its high-altitude solar-power aircraft that beams signals down to remote areas. It is expected to have a range of 20km and stay in the air for months at a time.
Another is its proof-of-concept Aries project, which is a base station with 96 antennas. A population density study across 20 countries found that 90 per cent of people live within 40km of major cities. “Aries can be used to extend coverage from city centres to remote communities without having to provide costly backhaul.”
But the company isn’t just looking at improving access in rural and remote areas. Urban areas, he said, are experiencing a different problem, with backhaul capacity unable to keep up with demand. Its Terragraph solution aims to address this issue with distributed nodes deployed at street level, bringing Ethernet access to buildings.
2 Comments
Nanda Wanninayaka
I was invited to Facebook’s Internet.org initiative last year in Colombo and they wanted to provide limited internet access to the public. But it never became a reality. When I contacted FB Asia team, what they told me was that TRCSL did not give them the permission to the project. If that is the case, how can we expect FB to provide Internet free for the masses?
Aung
I was also involved in a similar project (not Facebook) trying to delivery public internet in Myanmar. Government was also the limiting factor in our case. I believe partly out of inexperience on how to control such projects, but also because they did not want people clogging the unlicensed channels.
Nepal’s digital crossroads: building a transparent data governance framework
Nepal’s evolving digital landscape highlights a growing tension between constitutional guarantees of privacy and access to information, and a fragmented, outdated data governance framework. In a recent article published in Republica on March 17, 2026, Avash Mainali, Country Researcher for Nepal for LIRNEasia’s D4D Asia project, argues that while the introduction of the Personal Data Protection Policy, 2082 (2025), marks a positive step, its impact will depend on whether it can move beyond aspirational language to enforceable rights.
LIRNEasia CEO Helani Galpaya Shares Insights on AI and Labour at ISLE Conference 2026
Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming labour markets worldwide. In the Global South, however, these changes are unfolding unevenly, shaped by labour markets defined by high levels of informality, uneven social protection, and large skills gaps.
LIRNEasia CEO Helani Galpaya at the Global South Policy Dialogue: Securing Labour Justice in the Age of AI
As Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to transform the world of work, its impacts in the Global South present urgent and unique challenges. Unlike advanced economies with formal labour markets and stronger safety nets, many countries in the Global South face high levels of informality, limited social protection, and unequal access to skills and digital infrastructure.
Links
User Login
Themes
Social
Twitter
Facebook
RSS Feed
Contact
9A 1/1, Balcombe Place
Colombo 08
Sri Lanka
+94 (0)11 267 1160
+94 (0)11 267 5212
info [at] lirneasia [dot] net
Copyright © 2026 LIRNEasia
a regional ICT policy and regulation think tank active across the Asia Pacific