Smartphone users in India can now access certain websites without having to pay for mobile data charges. The catch however is that users can only access 38 specific websites and it comes as no surprise as social network giant Facebook is on top of the list.
The group behind this scheme is Internet.org, a partnership between social giant Facebook and six mobile phone companies that includes Qualcomm, Microsoft, Samsung, Ericsson, MediaTek and Opera Software.
The group's intention is to get people hooked on the internet especially on social networks and internet news, according to The Register. The free service only requires users to have a phone capable of running an internet browser like Opera Mina and a mobile data signal.
Users of the free service are only allowed to access 38 carefully picked websites. The list includes Wikipedia, Reuters, BBC News, Facebook and other websites dabbling on education, job listings and healthcare.
Additionally, users are restricted to access Google since Microsoft is one of the founders of the Internet.org and Bing is already part of the free service.
Facebook has agreed to work with local telecom company Reliance Communications and plans to cover six Indian states and will cover the remaining states in the next 90 days, according to Reuters India. The service will be available in various languages like English, Hindi and Telugu among others.
Despite offering the service for free, Facebook is looking to amass Reliance's 106.3 million subscribers.
Despite the booming smartphone industry in India only 20 percent of the country has access to the Internet. This leaves more than one billion offline and this staggering figure is what Facebook is trying to win over