Facebook adds Wifi hotspots to sustain Africa customer growth

[JOHANNESBURG] Facebook Inc has increased its number of African users to 170 million and plans to expand further by adding wifi hotspots and fiber optic cables, in a bid to spread its reach outside of developed markets.

The figure is 42 per cent higher than when the US social network first opened an Africa office in 2015, Carolyn Everson, vice president of global marketing, said in an interview in Johannesburg on Tuesday.

The rollout of wifi in Nigeria and Kenya will be done via partnerships with international wireless carriers such as Emirates Telecommunications Group Co and closely held Surf respectively, she said.

Facebook also announced the construction of 770 kilometres of fiber in Uganda alongside Bharti Airtel Ltd of India earlier this year.

"There is no magic bullet to provide the internet to people on the continent," Ms Everson said near the site of Facebook's new, larger office in Johannesburg.

"We are using everything available to us, including rolling out express wifi, building fiber, and testing our Aquila project," she said, referring to unmanned solar powered planes that beam down internet.

The plans are part of a long-term investment push by Facebook in Africa, the social network's least developed market with less than 10 per cent of its 1.86 billion users worldwide.

The Menlo Park, California-based company is trying to take advantage of a young population, greater connectivity and the increasing availability and affordability of smartphones to access new customers. Other US companies targeting African growth include Google Inc, which said last month it's laying fiber optic cable and easing access to cheaper Android phones.

"People are sensitive to data prices on the continent. Infrastructure is expensive and that is why we are looking for partners," Ms Everson said.

"We are partnering with telecommunications infrastructure projects and as a result bring down the price of data."

The company's instant messaging service WhatsApp is proving "very popular" in Africa, she said, more so than Facebook Messenger.

Facebook will also re-visit its plan to use a satellite to connect rural Africa after the company's first attempt was scuppered last year by an exploding SpaceX rocket, the executive said.

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