Mumbai: Reliance Communication had tie up with Facebook to provide free access to 33 other website to users.
Telecom operator Reliance Communications and Facebook on Tuesday had made the announcement of their tie up and taken the initiative that aims to encourage more people to use the Internet.
These websites are across eight categories– social media, news, career, education and knowledge, sports, health and social welfare and search engine Bing.
Chief Executive officer of RCom for consumer Business, Gurdeep Singh said, “About 70 per cent of people in India don’t have access to Internet. We need to connect a billion people to the Internet. We are happy to announce that with Facebook we will offer free access to 33 popular websites.”
The free websites include Facebook, ecommerce portal OLX, Cleartrip, TimesJobs, Babajob and sports website ESPN Cricinfo.
The service has been initially launched for Reliance customers in Mumbai, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Chennai, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
Singh also said, “We are committed to launching it on pan-india level within 90 days.”
In a video message, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that last year his organisation had rolled out Internet.Org free basic services to countries with more than 150 million people total across Africa and Latin America and more than 6 million people, who were not connected to the Internet, are now connected with it.
Zuckerberg said, “But to continue connecting the world, we have to connect India. More than a billion people in India don’t have access to the Internet. Today’s announcement is just one step towards changing that.”
Chris Daniels, Vice-President of Internet.Org at Facebook said that they are looking for more partners to join this initiative so that more people can be brought on Internet.
Daniels said, “We are looking for more partners to take this initiative to more people.”
Reliance customers can access these websites with zero data charges at www.Internet.Org, or in the Internet.Org Android app.
Bureau Report
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