​Facebook and Airtel have an interesting tag-team going on in Africa

So what if India is opposed to net neutrality? Starting next month, the continent of Africa will be getting introduced to net neutrality. A top official of internet.org, Facebook's free mobile Internet service , has confirmed that Airtel is planning to roll it out in more African countries.

"We have a strong partnership with Airtel and we continue to roll out internet.org with Airtel throughout Africa. With Airtel, we will be rolling it out in more countries after this month," said internet.org Vice-President Chris Daniels.

Airtel was the first operator to launch this service in Zambia and later expanded it to three more African countries. It did not comment on a query sent in this regard.

Through internet.org, mobile users can access websites available on the platform for free.

Even the websites are not required to pay any charge for coming on to the platform, but need to follow certain technical criteria for joining it. Additionally, neither Facebook nor other websites are required to pay for Internet usage by end users.

A government panel has criticised this kind of platform, saying this can act as gatekeeper and should not be allowed.

Daniels defended the arrangement, though.

"The statistics show that what critics are saying about internet.org isn't really true. It is not a walled-garden; it is a gateway to the broader Internet. It's bringing people online more quickly. This programme is achieving the goal Digital India is setting out to accomplish, to bring people online," he said.

Internet.org is available in 6 circles with Reliance Communications.

"In the circles where internet.org is available, people are coming online twice as quickly as the circles where we have not launched it with Reliance," Daniels explained.

He said more than 40 % of people coming online for the first time with internet.org are paying for the full Internet within the first 30 days.