Facebooks Internet.org project, which aims to provide mobile users in emerging markets with free basic internet services, is celebrating its first birthday today, having launched its first app in Zambia exactly one year ago.

As part of the celebrations, the company has announced expansions to its offering, providing service operators with a dedicated portal they can use to connect with Facebook and begin arrangements to offer the service, as well as making it easier for developers to create Internet.org-friendly applications and services.

“Internet.org is not only a successful tool in helping bring people online, but it is successful in showing people the value of the internet and helping to accelerate its adoption,” wrote the company in a blog post marking the anniversary. “As we approach year two, weve taken everything weve learned from working closely with our partners and are now ready to scale Internet.org free basic services.”

The project has covered 17 different countries over its first year of operation, including large populations including India, Pakistan and Indonesia, with more than 9m users signed up, over half of whom go on to buy paid-for data packages within the first month.

However, the project has faced criticisms in many countries that it is acting as a gatekeeper to the internet using the project, ensuring that only selected partners and services are available to new users, rather than a completely free internet.