Airtel and Google Partner To Give Free Internet In Nigeria

Internet is here to stay in Nigeria and more people are joining the internet world daily in this precious country Nigeria. One problem though is that, the cost of accessing the Internet is high and not too fast in this part of the world. Consequently, some people are reluctant to stay on the internet or use it to increase business reach.

Well, Airtel Nigeria and Google have teamed up to offer a small simple solution to at least try to cushion the effect of high internet cost. This they have done by jointly initiating a cost free access to the internet. This was tagged as the 'Free Zone' Program.

Free Zone aim is to empower more people to have access to the internet and also encourage new folks to join the internet world for no cost.

To gain access to this free zone, one is expected to text 'Free Zone' to 881 or navigate to this URL http://g.co/freezone or www.freezone.google.com on a mobile phone browser.

Have tried it on two smartphones and the speed at which pages opens is very commendable.

first landing page if you visit the link on PC

From the words of Juliet Ehimuan, country manager, Google Nigeria, "We are excited to be working with Airtel to introduce Free Zone powered by Google to Nigeria. We believe in the power of the Internet to create better opportunities, and working with Airtel on this makes it possible for anyone with a phone to get Internet services at little or no cost.

Just like our other access projects, this gives people easier access to information in a way that benefits not just themselves, but their businesses, and by extension Nigeria's economy."

Airtel Chief Operating Officer also said similar statement but we wouldn't wanna bore you with that.

However, Airtel customers that access the service will have unlimited access to Gmail, Google Search (first page search results) and Google+ free of charge. All they have to do is have a phone that can access the internet and navigate through the website stated above.

What this means for clarity sake is that you would be able to check emails free of charge, use Google+ free of charge (that is, read articles, chat, upload pictures etc) and also every page displayed on the first page of Google search can be accessed free of charge.

Any other further browsing outside the free zone would be charged though. That is, downloading attachment or navigation to second page of a Google search results etc. More answers to questions are provided on the desktop version of the free zone link.

While this is not the best free internet service we have seen Google offer in other countries, we can say at least this is a start for Nigerians not matter how laughable it is for elite internet users.

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