Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced a partnership with Reliance Communications to launch an Indian version of the free mobile data service Internet.org.

The app will offer Indian users free access to basic internet services for education, news, travel, health, jobs, and communication across 38 websites.

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 As of December last year, the majority of the population (944 million) owned a mobile phone, yet the country had just over 243 million internet users, of which only 86 million had broadband access.

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Facebook is initially launching Internet.org in six Indian states, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Kerala and Telanagan, before fully rolling the project out nationally.

Reliance Communications CEO Gurdeep Singh suggested that around 60 million users would enjoy internet access for the first time via the app.

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Reliance Communications customers in India can access the free services through the Internet.org Android app available at http://www.internet.org. On other mobile devices, the service can be accessed directly through the browser.

http://thestack.com/india-crucial-global-internet-connectivity-zuckerberg-110215