Facebook has stepped forward to announce a new mobile version of their network that’s optimized for speed.  The primary focus is to bring Facebook more mainstream on an international level.

The new site, 0.facebook.com, is slated to launch in 45 countries across  50+ mobile networks.  The design is a slimline version of the traditional Facebook site most of us are used to and carries many of the same features available on m.Facebook.com including the well-loved status updates, wall posts, comments and additional newsfeed segment.  The almighty like button is available as well.

What makes 0.Facebook.com so appealing is that the service is completely free, regardless of the data plan you might have.  While surfing the web on a mobile phone often eats up access and airtime, Facebook has gone the extra mile to work with the various networks participating to offer the service for free.  0.Facebook.com will be a costless experience for all.. well almost.  Photos cost money.

Operator networks such as T-Mobile, Vodafone and MTN are all extremely support of the new Facebook launch.

Before you get all excited, there’s a little caveat.  The service is only available within networks and countries that support it, and sadly the U.S. is not one of them.  Nor is the U.K., Japan, China, German… or any other country with strong wireless networks.  The mobile site is being fashioned specifically for nations where any kind of wireless data infrastructure is extremely difficult to acquire.

While some might feel the site is unnecessary with the ability to browse complete sites using smart phones like the Apple iPhone, those smart phones aren’t mainstream yet and there’s only a small portion of the population utilizing those phones.  The typical mobile user is still walking around with a Star Trek tri-corder style flip phone.  This makes the concept of a streamlined site make much more sense for other countries that aren’t hip the coolness of being a Machead

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With business integration throughout Facebook, this is great news for companies that use the social network for outreach, promotion and other sales.  Facebook has included complete language support for these countries as well, so a company message could have extended reach - likely well beyond their original intention.  That’s certainly a strong incentive to start pouring more time into Facebook.

Or is it?

Businesses gain the most from the social network through their direct interaction within their wall posts.  Second to that is the ability to create custom pages using the FBML application.  While both of these focus on content to drive messages, the limited functionality of mainstream phones can make access to this content a little difficult.  While this may not be the most ideal way to connect less-connected countries to businesses, it’s a big step in the right direction.  We may find that many of the new users connection through the mobile Facebook site for the first time will be users who lack access to a standard PC.  Their mobile connection may be their only access to Facebook, and subsequently, the businesses promoting from within.

It’ll be interesting to see what advancements are made in mobile technology and how free data transfer will change the user base.

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