Facebook is launching a new program that provides its employees a one-hour experience of the Internet speeds in various developing regions in the world including rural India and Africa, which only use second-generation wireless phone technology. On "2G Tuesdays" the social network's staff members can be downgraded from lightning-fast 4G connections, to speeds that require several minutes to load a basic web page. This will help to spotlight possible slow Internet speeds and data storage issues when developing mobile apps and services for global markets.
Facebook is making the program an optional initiative. Although Silicon Valley is often criticized for assuming that the entire world enjoys always-on Internet connections, the company's workers will have the opportunity to empathize with Web surfers in developing countries, according to Engadget.
Facebook product manager Chris Marra unveiled the new program in a blog post. He wrote that that company hopes it will improve its future builds by understanding how the social network's users with 2G Internet connectivity use its products, according to NBC News.
2G Tuesdays will have its limits. In many world regions second-gen phone tech is not an opt-in and moves at a super-slow snail's pace 24 hours per day, so Facebook employees will not get the full experience of becoming upset and frustrated while connecting and reconnecting to the Web.
However, the 2G Tuesdays program could help developers used to 4G speeds build apps and services that factor in the tech limitations of millions of Facebook users. They include slow Internet connections and remote areas without Web access.
In January 2015 about 42 percent of the world had Internet access. A total 60 percent of global mobile connections are below broadband-enabled 3G.
In this video Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg talks about global connectivity: