At MWC 2019, Facebook Wants To Silence Controversy With Connectivity Vision

At the 2019 Mobile World Congress, among a vast number of phones, there is Facebook and it doesn’t bring any phones here. The company’s here to tell you that it’s improving internet access and attracting more people to use the platform.

Facebook actually caught attention at the Congress a few years ago when attendees saw Mark Zuckerberg in running shoes while pounding Barcelona streets ahead of his packed keynote as well as surprisingly showed up at Samsung’s press conference.

Since 2014, however, last year the company's CEO didn’t speak at the conference. He let junior executives host private meetings instead. This time, there could be more to expect from the social giant.

It’s quite obvious why the company wants to walk on eggshells. In 2018, just several weeks after MWC, Facebook got in trouble with the worst data breach in its history, the Cambridge Analytica scandal where 87 million users’ data was abused. The company then was stuck with a series of issues relating to user security and workplace culture.

Since then, it has become a challenge for Facebook to get its message of connectivity heard above the scandals.

Facebook to push connectivity

Mark Zuckerberg

In August, the social network tried to bring more people to its platform with the “Facebook Connectivity” banner and hired Dan Rabinovitsj as VP to head this part. But this attempt also faced criticism as people thought it was pretending to be philanthropy while collecting profits. To be fair, getting more people to go online does bring more profit to the company.

For example, Free Basics, a program in which Facebook pared down the Internet and gave it to people with basic phones, raised concerns over net neutrality.

At MWC 2016, the company announced TIP (Telecom Infra Project) where it worked with network firms and telecom providers to address major connectivity hurdles.

Jack Kent, a HIS Markets analyst, wrote in an email that Facebook used to focus on efforts to increase its audience in younger mobile first markets. While these kinds of deals involve working with network operators, Facebook needs to balance between boosting its services and wider internet access.

To the 5G era

This year, Facebook is likely to reveal more updates on this project.

According to Kent, Facebook has presented less in TIP sine more partners are joining in, but that doesn’t change the key role of the company in this project.

Despite no comment from Facebook, we’ve got some clues about its MWC activities. It looks like most TIP demos and panels will occur at the company’s private event space, featuring topics like developing the Wi-Fi ecosystem, high-speed millimeter wave project and a project focusing on an exciting aspect of 5G networks in the future.