Aircel and Wikimedia Foundation has announced a partnership to offer Wikipedia on mobile phones without any data charges to Aircel customers. The alliance is aimed at making
knowledge available on Wikipedia accessible to all Aircel customers in both rural and urban areas for free. This is the first service of its kind to formally launch in India.
This partnership is part of the Wikimedia Foundation’s Wikipedia Zero program, which focuses on reaching the billions of people around the world whose primary opportunity to access the internet is via a mobile device. This partnership between Aircel and the Wikimedia Foundation will help provide Wikipedia to 60 million new users in the region.
Anupam Vasudev, Chief Marketing Officer, Aircel, said, “Through our alliance with the Wikimedia Foundation, Aircel is not only making internet services reach a wider audience, but also helps encourage and enrich the lives of our customers by offering access to knowledge and information free of cost. We are excited about this partnership and hope this initiative will benefit all our customers from various age groups”.
“We hail Aircel’s commitment to enhancing and expanding access to free knowledge for their mobile customers. With the partnership, we extend our program to India where we potentially reach millions of people for the first time. Aircel’s support has helped us expand free access to Wikipedia Zero to 470 million mobile users across the globe,” said Kul Takanao Wadhwa, Head – Mobile, Wikimedia Foundation.
Aircel customers will be able to access versions of Wikipedia in English, Hindi, Tamil and 17 other Indic languages. Aircel is a young, data led telecom player and has been continuously innovating products and services to offer convenience to its young customers. The company has recently introduced various noteworthy data products like Pocket Internet Smart and the recent one being Pocket Internet 24, which offers internet at less than 1 rupee a day. Therefore, Aircel aims to empower and inspire the youth by enhancing their data experience.