A few months ago Google said they will be working towards providing internet connectivity to parts of the world that don’t have it via WiFi-broadcasting balloons. The project bears the appropriate moniker, ‘Project Loon’.

On Tuesday, Mark Zuckerberg announced that together with Ericsson, MediaTek, Nokia, Opera, Samsung and Qualcomm, they will be founding Internet.org.

This project will bring the internet to the two thirds of the world that don’t have access. They haven’t revealed exactly how they are going to do this, but said they are aiming to make access affordable, use data more efficiently and lend a helping hand to businesses so they can increase their access.

In a statement, Zuckerberg said:

There are huge barriers in developing countries to connecting and joining the knowledge economy

He added that Internet.org  will bring together a global partnership that will work to overcome these challenges.

The United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals report stated that 2,7 billion people (39% of the world’s population ) will be online before the end of 2013.

In an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek , Bill Gates criticized Google’s Project Loon saying,

When you’re dying of malaria, I suppose you’ll look up and see that balloon, and I’m not sure how it’ll help you. When a kid gets diarrhea, no, there’s no website that relieves that.

Whether you side with Gates, or the rest of these media giants, this video will tug at your heart strings.

Do you share Zuck’s passion for connecting people? Do you think you could be a Communications Minister? Apply here.

[SOURCES: ABC News, Engadget, YouTube]