Facebook has teamed up with Reliance Communications to provide the Internet.org app to Reliance customers in six Indian states, making India the latest country to benefit from the online initiative.
First launched in Zambia in July 2014, the idea behind Facebook’s Internet.org initiative is to make the Internet accessible to more people by providing a set of free basic services, including news, maternal health, travel, local jobs, sports, communication, and local government information.
In India, for example, users will be able to read news from Times of India, find information on Wikipedia, get crop and farming information as well as latest weather reports, and even receive cricket updates. Access to Facebook is naturally also included. Overall, Reliance customers in Tamil Nadu, Mahararashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Kerala and Telangana will now have access to more than three dozen services.
Reliance customers in India can access these services in the Internet.org Android app, at http://www.internet.org, from the start screen of the Opera Mini mobile web browser, and using the Android app UC Browser for Internet.org. Most of the services will be available in English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Gujarati and Marathi.
Internet.org is now available to Airtel customers in Ghana, Kenya and Zambia, Tigo customers in Colombia and Tanzania, and Reliance customers in India. It will also be expanded to other countries over time.
When the initiative was first launched, Facebook noted that over 85% of the world’s population lived in areas with existing mobile phone coverage, yet only about 30% of the total population accessed the Internet. The social networking giant’s ambition is to improve the affordability and drive awareness of the Internet. Of course, in the process the company will also be hopin g to drive usage of Facebook itself.
