Wikipedia Zero, an initiative from Wikipedia foundation to provide free mobile data access to Wikipedia for users in emerging countries has officially arrived in India. The foundation has partnered with Aircel, one of India’s leading cellular operator in India. So around 60 million of Aircel users can now access Wikipedia free of data charges and can access the Global knowledge repository. Talking about the Wikipedia Zero in India Amit Kapoor Senior Manager, Mobile Partnerships, at the Wikimedia Foundation says “It is our mission to provide free access to knowledge for everyone in the world,”. “It’s only fitting then that today we announced our first Wikipedia Zero partnership launch in India, the world’s second most populous country.” The free data access only applies to the mobile web version available at m.wikipedia.org, or zero.wikipedia.org which is a speedier text-only version of the site. Son from today any Aircel users accessing these sites will not incur any data charges. Wikipedia Zero initiative now available in 17 countries globally first made in Uganda and Tunisia and reached to Malaysia and spread wings to Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Kuwait, followed by Pakistan in May 2013 and Sri Lanka the following month. With the addition of India, almost half a billion people globally now has free data access to Wikipedia widening the distribution of free knowledge. ]]>
