Connectivity is at the heart of Facebook’s mission of giving people the power to build community and bring the world closer together. It helps us grow our knowledge, stay in touch with loved ones, manage our finances, and even run a business. For many of us, it’s a major part of our daily lives, but it’s also something we can easily take for granted. Most of the world does not have easy access to fast, reliable internet. And in regions where they do have internet access, it’s often too expensive. Here at Facebook Israel, we have teams who are working to overcome these challenges and help accelerate the expansion and improvement of connectivity around the world. We build various products, apps, and services to connect billions of people around the world, enabling them to live, work, and play in a way that matters most to them.

Express Wi-Fi is one of the initiatives led by the teams in Israel that aims to bring fast, affordable, and reliable Wi-Fi to emerging markets and developing countries that remain unconnected. The team works closely with carriers, internet service providers, mobile network operators, who expand the provision of fast, affordable, and reliable access to the internet over Wi-Fi using Express Wi-Fi. Through this program, service providers partner with local communities and local entrepreneurs to extend Wi-Fi coverage in underserved regions. Meet Amit F., a software engineering manager in Tel Aviv who is leading the rapid scaling of Express Wi-Fi across the globe.

“I was drawn to working at Facebook because I felt strongly about the social good aspect of the company’s mission. Many of us are simply lucky to have been born in a country, where a luxury like fast internet connection is available to us everywhere we go. I’m very passionate about connecting the unconnected and bringing equal opportunities to people around the globe. I lead the Engineering team responsible for building the end-to-end solution for Express Wi-Fi. In a nutshell, the experience is similar to how many of us connect to Wi-Fi in airports or hotels.

While our mission is simple, the nuances of bringing it to life vary across different parts of the world. Our team of software engineers are building an end-to-end program, which is a combination of low-level software, mobile apps, web apps, data, and business intelligence components. It’s a diverse grouping of technology. We work with a wide range of partners within each region, ranging from mom and pop shops to network operators, to implement our solution. Managing all of this across different regions can be challenging, especially within different cultures, languages, and governments. In many countries, telecom is a heavily regulated industry and dealing with legislation in each region has its own unique set of issues. It’s very important for us to understand how each country operates. The complexity and technical depth of building and expanding Express Wi-Fi makes our work very interesting and motivating.

Every engineer on our team has a role in helping shape and lead the direction of Express Wi-Fi, and they find it very refreshing and exciting to have a wide range of challenges to overcome. During my time at Facebook, I’ve moved from one challenge to another across different disciplines, and as a manager, it’s primed me to be a problem solver. Here in the Tel Aviv office, everyone is very open and collaborative. It’s great to work with talented and brilliant individuals who are just as motivated as I am to help solve a major, global disparity. Our team has a strong entrepreneurial spirit, and together we’re paving the way toward bringing connectivity to billions of people around the world.”