According to a joint release from Airtel and Opera, Airtel is zero-rating access to the Ebola Facts website for subscribers who use the Opera Mini browser on the Airtel network.
“We have all been following the concerning news of the recent Ebola outbreak in West Africa and we want to ensure that Nigerians have access to as much information as possible to avoid contracting the virus. We believe these facts should be available freely and conveniently, which is why we are working with Airtel Nigeria to help provide a valuable portal for subscribers to access key details at any time,” said Richard Monday, Director for Opera sub-Saharan Africa.
Zero-rating is however not the most interesting thing here — Ebolafacts.com is a 150 kilobyte website. It’s the fact that because telcos like Airtel are strategically positioned to reach millions of people. Opera Mini remains one of the most favoured browsers by mobile phone users in emerging markets, for its speed on low end devices as well as data economy, via compression. Working together in this way will help make critical information about Ebola’s symptoms and prevention accessible to more people.
Disclosure – Ebolafacts.com was created by BigCabal Media, which also owns TechCabal
