While this is a good goal, it's pretty clear this isn't the way to achieve it. It appears that the author hasn't thought it through - if the Facebook approach was rejected, why should exactly the same thing (as far as I can see) be accepted from another company.

It seems to me that the experience with rapid mobile take-up in Africa indicates that market-based solutions can work, but the key is high levels of competition. My understanding is that in most of Africa the landline phone companies were government owned monopolies and under serviced rural areas which forced the private sector to act.