Digicel teams with Wikipedia
KINGSTON, Jamaica — Telecommunications giant Digicel on Tuesday announced that it has partnered with Wikimedia to give customers unlimited access to Wikipedia information.
A release from Digicel said that “400 million mobile subscribers [already] have free access to Wikipedia, adding that “the agreement will extend free mobile access to Digicel’s customers in 31 markets across the Caribbean, Central America, and Asia Pacific”.
Digicel Haiti customers will be the first to take advantage of the collaboration with the service launching there today (December 9) the release said.
“We know that our customers want to get the best value out of their handsets. With mobile penetration growing exponentially in the region and more and more people using their mobile phones as educational tools, we are delighted to be bringing the joys of Wikipedia to our customers at no charge,” said Maarten Boute, Chairman of Digicel Haiti.
Wikipedia is said to be the largest collection of free knowledge ever assembled and is a collaborative creation by volunteer editors from all over the world.
“We are committed to ensuring that people not only have access to the knowledge on Wikipedia without barriers on mobile phones with no data charges, but that they can become knowledge creators themselves, and build strong communities of the future.
“We are therefore very excited about the collaboration with Digicel where the potential to open up the knowledge on Wikipedia to new audiences is immense, and the impact in communities…could be transformative,” said Carolynne Schloeder, Head of Global Partnerships with the Wikimedia Foundation.