Telecom service provider Telenor announced that it will launch Wikipedia Zero in Myanmar as and when it starts mobile services there. Uninor, a Telenor subsidiary, will launch Wikipedia Zero next year in India.
The agreement between Telenor Group and the Wikimedia Foundation, which operates Wikipedia, enables Telenor’s future mobile subscribers in Myanmar to access Wikipedia’s vast knowledge base free of mobile data traffic charges when Telenor begins services in the country.
The initiative is part of the Wikimedia Foundation’s mobile strategy, which focuses on reaching the billions of people around the world whose primary opportunity to access the Internet is via a mobile device.
Following the agreement, special versions of Wikipedia for mobile phones were launched in Thailand, Malaysia and Montenegro. In addition, Telenor aims to launch Wikipedia Zero in Pakistan, Bangladesh, India and Serbia in 2014.
“Access to high quality telecommunications tools and affordable services plays a substantial role in developing societies. Offering Wikipedia free of traffic charges also helps introduce internet to mobile users, often for the first time,” said Jon Fredrik Baksaas, president and CEO of Telenor Group.
