Digicel El Salvador and Facebook have announced the launch of “Free Basics”.
Free Basics is a platform developed by Facebook to give people free access to information and knowledge through more than 40 sites like Wikipedia, Facebook, Messenger, Elsalvador.com, Laprensagrafica.com and BabyCentre & Mama, amongst other websites.
Announced during a forum hosted jointly by Digicel El Salvador and Facebook at the Jose Simeon Cañas University, the initiative aims to expand access and knowledge connectivity to the two-thirds of the world population that still lacks it, including more than half of the population of El Salvador.
This service is now exclusively available to all Digicel users in the country with El Salvador the seventh country in Latin America to provide this service. Free Basics can be accessed through a mobile site from the most basic phones or via a smartphone application.
“Digicel has been on a mission to ensure that people have access to affordable mobile communications, access to broadband and now access to Free Basics. This is part of our commitment to bridging the digital divide and the reason why we have developed this exclusive partnership with Facebook,” said Ignacio Román, CEO of Digicel El Salvador.
Arturo Aldave, Growth Manager for Facebook for Northern Latin America, said “Free Basics helps Salvadorans who are not yet connected to the Internet to discover the value of connectivity and expand their access to knowledge and growth.”
In addition to Free Basics, Digicel and Facebook are also launching Facebook Flex, a version of Facebook that allows users to have a free basic version of Facebook to text and chat even when they do not have balance and are not on wi-fi. Free Basics is available to more than one billion people worldwide.
