Technology
Facebook App Gives Free Internet to Mobile Users in Zambia
This Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2014 photo, shows the WhatsApp and Facebook app icons on an iPhone in New York. (AP Photo/Karly Domb Sadof)
(IDG News Service) – Facebook introduced an app on Thursday that will give mobile phone subscribers in Zambia access to a set of free basic mobile data services — and Facebook.
The app is part of Facebook’s Internet.org project that aims to bring Internet access to the two thirds of the world’s population that doesn’t have it. With the app, people can browse a set of health, employment and local information services without data charges, Facebook said on Thursday.
“By providing free basic services via the app, we hope to bring more people online and help them discover valuable services they might not have otherwise,” Facebook’s director of product management, Guy Rosen, wrote.
Among the services are Google, Wikipedia and AccuWeather as well as Facebook and Facebook messages, a Zambia job search portal and a women’s rights app, Rosen said.
