MTN Ghana recently joined the growing number of mobile network operators across the globe that are in partnership with Wikimedia Foundation in its Wikipedia zero project. This move by MTN Ghana, which was done in partnership with Ghana’s Ministry of education makes MTN Ghana the country’s first mobile operator to offer free access to Wikipedia.
The Wikipedia zero project was set up to give mobile phone users free access to Wikipedia contents. Due to this initiative, materials on wikipedia would be accessible to subscribers of the MTN network in Ghana at no cost.
According to Rahul De, MTN Ghana’s Chief Marketing Officer, “Wikipedia Zero removes the data cost barrier for our customers to access educational material” stating further that the initiative would enable many educational institutions in Ghana to tap into the vast information available on Wikipedia for education and research.
Wikipedia zero is currently supported by 35 mobile network operators in 41 nations, and the initiative is quite similar to other zero-rating services like, Facebook Zero and Google Free Zones.
Bolade Popoola contributed to this story.
