Facebook testing a feature to help you find nearby free Wi-Fi hotspots

Everyone knows about Facebook’s ambitious plans about the reach of the Internet to the farthest corners of the world. The social networking giant is now testing a feature designed to highlight places where you can access free and public Wi-Fi near you.

“To help people stay connected to the friends and experiences they care about, we are rolling out a new feature that surfaces open Wi-Fi networks associated with nearby places,” a Facebook spokesperson shared with VentureBeat.

Apparently, some time back, Facebook started asking Pages to list Wi-Fi hotspots at and around their physical addresses. The reason for the same is being understood now.

Though the Wi-Fi discovery feature has already started rolling out, it's available in very few countries as of now. The positive renderings of this addition might not be too apparent on the surface but Mark Zuckerberg is known to play his cards with future envisioning.

The usefulness of this feature is, in fact, many and varied. The Wi-Fi discovery would be impactful for users in developing countries with costly data plans and who otherwise rely on Facebook Lite. This would also save you from incurring heavy roaming charges when traveling internationally. Another possibility could be for users who need to upload large files, such as photos or videos, or even to broadcast through Facebook Live.

The free Wi-Fi hotspots around the city will also impact the whole targeted advertising phenomena. Notably, the feature is still in its nascent stage as the company probably doesn’t have much data at present. However, we can expect it to keep beefing it up with new hotspots and new locations.