Disclosure: I worked at FB, but not on connectivity projects, although I was adjacent to internet.org.
As far as I could tell, these were serious efforts, but it's important to understand the organizational goals. Facebook benefits from increased connectivity regardless of who operates the network (as long as it's not actively hostile to FB, anyway). So there was a focus on research and publication rather than build-out. If FB can find a viable improvement in networks, and convince networks to use it, that increases connectivity which is good for FB. Additionaly, if network providers use FB developed technology in their networks, it might improve relations with those networks, which are sometimes strained because of competition in the messaging space.
In my mind, this is the same as Google Fiber. Google Fiber was a terrible business for Google, but as a result of announcing their plans to build out in specific cities, the incumbent networks built out high speed fiber in most (or all) of those cities and maybe a few other places, which increases penetration of high speed connectivity, which is good for Google as a whole, so it's still a win.
As far as I could tell, these were serious efforts, but it's important to understand the organizational goals. Facebook benefits from increased connectivity regardless of who operates the network (as long as it's not actively hostile to FB, anyway). So there was a focus on research and publication rather than build-out. If FB can find a viable improvement in networks, and convince networks to use it, that increases connectivity which is good for FB. Additionaly, if network providers use FB developed technology in their networks, it might improve relations with those networks, which are sometimes strained because of competition in the messaging space.
In my mind, this is the same as Google Fiber. Google Fiber was a terrible business for Google, but as a result of announcing their plans to build out in specific cities, the incumbent networks built out high speed fiber in most (or all) of those cities and maybe a few other places, which increases penetration of high speed connectivity, which is good for Google as a whole, so it's still a win.