(also posted online at
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Telenor_and_WMF_partner_…
)
*Telenor makes Wikipedia available to 135 million customers in Asia and
Europe*
San Francisco, California and Oslo, Norway -- February 28, 2012 --Telenor
Group and the Wikimedia Foundation today announced a new partnership to
offer Wikipedia free of traffic charges on mobile devices to Telenor
customers in Asia and Southeastern Europe. By making versions of Wikipedia
available to 135 million mobile customers, Telenor Group and the Wikimedia
Foundation demonstrate a shared commitment to increasing access to the free
and open knowledge available on Wikipedia.
This initiative is part of the Wikimedia Foundation's mobile strategy,
which focuses on reaching the billions of people around the world whose
primary opportunity to access the Internet is via a mobile device.
“The Wikimedia Foundation is working to remove barriers to free knowledge,
and for most people around the world right now, cost and accessibility are
the two biggest hurdles,” says Barry Newstead, Wikimedia Chief Global
Development Officer. “We applaud Telenor for joining us to deliver free
access to Wikipedia for their customers. Through this partnership, we move
a step closer to providing the sum of all knowledge to everyone in the
world.”
This partnership supports Telenor's commitment to bring more value to its
mobile customers. The company has pioneered the development of value-adding
services to rural and underserved communities in Asia. Telenor involve
millions in Asia through the I-Genius project, which has already reached
out to 300,000 Bangladeshi students and school-children with a call to
explore open knowledge on the internet.
“We are delighted to have the opportunity to work with the Wikimedia
Foundation. Telenor have pioneered affordable, mobile communications across
much of Asia, and we have built a track record of offering vital services
with a significant outreach” says Kristin Skogen Lund, Executive Vice
President and Head of Digital Services at Telenor Group. “With this
agreement, we are first in Asia to bring a vast knowledge source to the
millions in underserved communities across the region.”
The 3-year partnership between Telenor Group and the Wikimedia Foundation
will cover 135 million users. The agreement is signed by seven countries:
Thailand, Malaysia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Montenegro, and Serbia. By
the end of the year, more markets are expected to join. The agreement will
be implemented step by step throughout 2012, with the first markets
launching during the second quarter.
Each local Telenor affiliate will establish technical solutions together
with the Wikimedia Foundation. Customers with a Telenor SIM will be able to
access a version of the encyclopedia for as many times as they like in a
given period, at no charge, as long as they stay within Wikipedia’s pages.
For more information, read the Telnor Partnership Q&A
here<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mobile_Projects/Partnerships/Q_and_A…
.
*About Telenor*
http://www.telenor.com
Telenor Group is an international provider of telecom, data and media
communication services. Telenor Group has mobile operations in 11 markets
in the Nordic region, Central and Eastern Europe and in Asia. The company
also has an ownership stake of 36.4 percent in VimpelCom Ltd., operating in
19 markets. Headquartered in Norway, Telenor Group is one of the world’s
major mobile operators with 140 million mobile subscriptions in its
consolidated operations per Q4 2011, revenues in 2011 of NOK 99 billion,
and a workforce of approximately 30,000.
*About the Wikimedia Foundation*
http://wikimediafoundation.org
http://blog.wikimedia.org
The Wikimedia Foundation is the non-profit organization that operates
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. According to comScore Media Metrix,
Wikipedia and the other projects operated by the Wikimedia Foundation
receive more than 482 million unique visitors per month, making them the
fifth-most popular web property world-wide (comScore, January 2012).
Available in 282 languages, Wikipedia contains more than 20 million
articles contributed by a global volunteer community of more than 100,000
people. Based in San Francisco, California, the Wikimedia Foundation is an
audited, 501(c)(3) charity that is funded primarily through donations and
grants.
*Press contacts*
*Telenor:
*Tor Odland
Vice President
CommunicationsTelenor Group
+47 9909 0872
tor.odland(a)telenor.com
*Wikimedia Foundation:
*Jay Walsh
Head of Communications
Wikimedia Foundation
+1 415-839-6885, ext 6609
jwalsh(a)wikimedia.org
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subject line.)*
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