A week after it was banned in India, Facebook’s Free Basics service, which aims to bring affordable Internet to 5 billion people in the world who otherwise can’t access it, has been suspended in Egypt.
The service was suspended following the expiry of a mandatory permit that the Egyptian government issues, Reuters reported.
Free Basics was launched in the country only a couple of months ago, and according to Facebook, around 3 million people had already signed up for it, of which 1 million were accessing the Internet for the first time.
“We’re disappointed that Free Basics will no longer be available in Egypt,” the social networking company said in a statement, adding that it hopes the problem will be resolved soon.
It isn’t yet clear whether or not the suspension was related to net-neutrality concerns, as was the case in India.
