Uninor offers free access to Wikipedia; aims to bring 50% of its users on Internet by 2017

NEW DELHI: Uninor will provide its customers with free access to Wikipedia in the country, in the latest initiative by the Indian unit of Norway’s Telenor to get more and more of its users onto the Internet.

With the introduction of free Wikipedia and more such services in the pipeline, Uninor plans to have 50% of its users on the Internet by 2017, the company said in a statement. The free access to Wikipedia will be available for three months starting April 1, 2015.

“By giving free access to Wikipedia, Uninor will be able to put this repository of knowledge in the hands of the masses and empower the society,” Vivek Sood, Chief Executive at Uninor, said in the statement.

As part of the programme, Uninor employees will also engage with students and teachers to spread awareness on digital literacy with special focus on Wikipedia in the rural areas.

In 2012, Telenor committed to bring Wikipedia to its customers free of data charges through a partnership with the Wikimedia Foundation. Following the agreement, free access to Wikipedia on mobile phones has been launched in Telenor business units in Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar and Montenegro.

“By promoting free access to Wikipedia, Uninor is spreading awareness and opening doors to information to people who might otherwise not have access to it,” Carolynne Schloeder, director of Mobile Partnerships at the Wikimedia Foundation, said.

Last year, Uninor had introduced service-based plans for Facebook and WhatsApp for its subscribers.