Social media giant Facebook has expanded its controversial ‘Free Basics’ initiative (earlier called Internet.org) across the country to offer basic internet access on Reliance Communications (RCom) mobile network .

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg himself took to social media to announce this expansion. “We just took another step towards connecting India. As of today, everyone in India nation-wide can access free internet services for health, education, jobs and communication through Internet.org's Free Basics app on the Reliance network,” said Mr Zuckerberg.

He said that nearly 1 billion people are currently without internet access in India. It has over eight lakh users under the Free Basics initiative and is the second largest user-base for Facebook .