Facebook’s high school Wi-Fi project

Hyderabad: A  year after Facebook unveiled Internet.org, an initiative to provide Internet to the two thirds of the world’s population that doesn’t have it, the company announced a pilot program that aims to provide free wireless Internet to students in the Rutherford County School District in Forest City, North Carolina — the same city that houses one of the company’s massive data centers.

It’s the first time that Facebook has decided to provide free Wi-Fi to students, and could be the first of many such partnerships to come if the program is successful.

While the partnership is not specifically tied to Internet.org, which is more of a global initiative to bring Internet access to developing countries, the overall theme remains the same: Facebook wants as many people online as possible.

Additionally, offering free Wi-Fi to students may help Facebook stay connected to the teen demographic it has been slowly losing.