If Facebook has been eating your data, maybe it’s time you use Facebook Lite?
Given the high costs of data in Africa and Asia, Mark Zuckerberg has launched Facebook Lite, an application that uses less data and can work on phones with lower specs.
According to Facebook, the free app is designed to function in areas with 2G connections and poor connectivity. This will certainly ease the challenge that network providers such as Cell, MTN, Vodacom and Telkom Mobile currently face in providing proper mobile access to rural and even certain urban areas for people to consume on their phones.
Social media activity ranks as one of the highest forms of consumption when it comes to engaging in internet activities in South Africa.
The creation of Facebook Lite is a revolutionary decision that will allow access to the popular social media platform in a continent where mobile internet penetration far supersedes broadband penetration, especially in developing countries like South Africa with infiltration levels as high as 72 percent.
Facebook Lite is currently available on the Google Play Store to users in promising to be an app that is “compatible with all your devices”.
With an app size of less than 1MB, Facebook certainly holds true to their word of compactness. The great advantage of using this app is that it still allows users to access multimedia content like images, but at a compressed, manageable size. The app is currently available to users in Zimbabwe, Nigeria, South Africa, Sudan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Nepal and will continue to be rolled out to cover more countries with poor internet access.
For urban areas in South Africa with adequate coverage Cell C, Vodacom and MTN provides mobile data bundle at R149 for 1 GB in order to compete for consumers. Telkom Mobile has the cheapest data bundle package at R119 per GB. Vodacom, MTN and Telkom Mobile provide much faster LTE internet speeds, a technology that Cell C still has to implement. As you go closer into rural areas and surprisingly a significant amount of urban areas, connectivity is indeed poor, depending on the network you operate with.
While mobile consumers in South Africa wait for the gradual rollout of more cell phone towers and better internet activity, Facebook Lite will surely keep them entertained.
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