“Once you’re connected, you’re connected, and you don’t want to look back.”
Peter Bithos, Globe Senior Adviser for Consumer Business.
In an article in the New York Times published on August 20, 2013, it is said that Facebook aims to cut the cost of basic internet services on mobile phone phones, particularly in developing countries like the Philippines.
Internet.org, a coalition which aims to provide access to everyone, together with tech giants like Samsung, Nokia, Qualcomm, and Ericsson, will also be working together as partners of this kind of initiative.
In order to accomplish their goals, these companies try to simplify their phone applications and improve the components of phones and networks. With these kinds of strategy, applications will run more efficiently and will transmit more data while using less power.
In relation to this project, Google launched their Free Zone last year in some developing countries. This Free Zone provides free access to Gmail, and Google’s Search Engine.
Twitter has also started their move by offering their stocks to the public. This aims to offer some free Twitter access across 100 countries making Twitter available and easy to use even on the cheapest cellphones.
The potential of free internet access is clearly obvious in developing countries like the Philippines, wherein, Globe Telecom utilizes Twitter, Facebook, or Google as part of its marketing tool. With the use of these free services as promotions, Globe Telecom was able to increase the number of its 37 million users who also subscribe to a mobile data plan to 20 percent from virtually zero in just two years.
