the Wikimedia Foundation today announced
Orange and the Wikimedia Foundation today announced a major partnership designed to make knowledge more easily available to 70 million Orange mobile customers throughout Africa and the Middle East.
In the first partnership of its kind
for Wikipedia
webapex.net , Orange and the Wikimedia Foundation will provide customers in
both remote and urban areas of AMEA with access to Wikipedia without adding on
data charges.
In 2009, Orange and the Wikimedia
Foundation formed the world’s first mobile and Internet partnership to expand
the reach of Wikimedia’s projects through channels on Orange mobile and web
portals in Euro
westernmagazine.org pe.
This new partnership will be
gradually launched throughout 2012 across 20 African and Middle Eastern
countries where Orange operates, with the first markets launching early in the
year. The in
ysin.org
itiative is part of the Wikimedia Foundation’s mobile strategy that
aims to reach the billions of people around the world who access the internet
solely through mobile devices.
Any customer with an Orange SIM and
mobile internet enabled phone will be able to access the Wikipedia site either
through their browser or an Orange widget. They can access the Wikipedia
encyclopaedia services for as many times as they like at no extra charge as
long as they stay within Wikipedia’s pages.
“Wikipedia is an important service,
a public good – and so we want people to be able to access it for free,
regardless of what device they’re using,” said Sue Gardner, Executive Director
of the Wikimedia Foundation. “This partnership with Orange will enable millions
of people to read Wikipedia, who previously couldn’t. We’re thrilled to be Orange’s
partner in this important endeavour.”
Marc Rennard, Group Executive Vice
President, Africa, Middle East and Asia at Orange, commented, “In countries
where access to information is not always readily available, we are making it
simple and easy for our customers to use the world’s most comprehensive online
encyclopaedia. It is the first partnership of this kind in the world where we
are enabling customers to access Wikipedia without incurring any data charges;
and shows Orange’s ability, once again, to innovate in Africa and the Middle
East, and bring more value to our customers.”
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