With an aim to bring more people online and reduce the digital divide in Africa, Bharti Airtel has entered into a partnership with Facebook to roll out Free Basics across 17 African countries in phases by March 2016.
In September this year, the social media giant had renamed what it had termed its Internet access enabling platform "Internet.org" as Free Basics by Facebook.
As per a statement issued by Chris Daniels, Facebook's Internet.org vice-president, "We are excited to continue our partnership with Airtel in bringing more people online. More than one billion people have access to Internet.org's free basic services across Asia, Africa and Latin America today. Our intention is to help the people in Africa access relevant basic services."
The Free Basics service offers free access to a set of basic websites and services with objective to introduce people to the Internet so that they have an acess to information related to health, education as well as finance.
Since 2014, Airtel Africa had been working with Facebook improvise budget Internet accessibility by introducing Free Basics in Zambia, Kenya, Malawi, Ghana, Seychelles and Rwanda.
As per the news reports, Free Basics will be rolled out initially in Airtel Nigeria, DRC, Gabon and Niger followed by other Airtel Africa markets. An Airtel mobile connection consumer will be able to use all the services that form part of Free Basics without paying more money for data charges or rental.
With the launch of the services, those Airtel users who are accessing the Internet.Org application and mobile website will be able to use the Android app, but it will be called as Free Basics by Facebook in Google Play. The statement further added that the mobile web version will redirect users from the previous Internet.Org web address to Free Basics website. (Image: Thinkstock)