Facebook Launches Internet.org App and Free Access to 38 Websites in India

What is Internet.org?

Internet.org is Facebook’s project which aims at providing basic mobile services for free to the users. Internet.org does this by partnering with the telecom industry partners. Last year when Facebook hosted the first Internet.org Summit in Indian capital New Delhi, people were expecting the launch of the service in India pretty soon.

Today, Indian telecom provider Reliance Communications and Facebook has made the free internet available to the billion-plus population of India with the launch of the free basic internet services and Internet.org app. At last year’s Internet.org summit, Facebook launched a $1 million fund committed to making apps for India.

Till now this service was available to few African nations and Columbia, and the launch of Internet.org in India is certainly the biggest step for this non-profit organization.

The free internet service will be available to Reliance customers in six Indian states: Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Kerala, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. These services will be available in English, Hindi and five other local languages: Tamil, Gujarati, Malayalam, Marathi and Telugu.

How to get free internet via Internet.org?

Free internet can be accessed by Reliance countries in above states by following ways.

-  You can download the Internet.org Android app.

-  You can access the free internet on Opera Mini browser or UC Browser’s home screen.

What services will be free?

The free services being provided to the users will cover a vast variety of about three dozen services with topics like news, travel, jobs, sports, communication, government information etc.

The full list of services is below:

• Aaj Tak
• AccuWeather
• amarujala.com
• AP Speaks
• Babajob
• BabyCenter & MAMA
• BBC News
• Bing Search
• Cleartrip
• Daily Bhaskar
• Dictionary.com
• ESPN Cricinfo
• Facebook
• Facts for Life
• Girl Effect
• HungamaPlay
• IBNLive
• iLearn
• India Today
• Internet Basics
• Jagran
• Jagran Josh
• Maalai Malar
• Maharashtra Times
• Malaria No More
• manoramanews.com
• Messenger
• NDTV
• Newshunt
• OLX
• Reliance Astrology
• Reuters Market Lite
• Socialblood
• Times of India
• TimesJobs
• Translator
• Wikipedia
• wikiHow

What are the benefits for Facebook?

New and developing markets are the prime focus for Facebook nowadays and the major share of the new users come via mobile phones. With more trying their hands on the free internet, the smartphone users will increase. This also means more advertisers and users for Facebook.

In its statement, Facebook said that it is committed to improve the experience and roll out the feature to the rest part of the world.