Alibaba Reportedly in Talks With Telecom Players to Provide Free Internet in India

Alibaba Reportedly in Talks With Telecom Players to Provide Free Internet in India
Highlights
  • Alibaba reportedly in talks with telecom as well as Wi-Fi providers
  • The Chinese company is yet to come up with a plan for its services
  • Alibaba to focus on states with connectivity problems
Advertisement

Chinese Internet giant Alibaba may be the next major player after Facebook to try its hands on providing free Internet in India. A new report claims that the Alibaba's UCWeb is in talks with telecom operators as well as Wi-Fi providers to offer free Internet services in the country.

"We will definitely look at the opportunity to work together with service providers or even some Wi-Fi providers. We are trying to offer lower cost data to users and better connectivity, even free of cost connectivity. Wi-Fi providers and other players can be potentials and we are in talk," Jack Huang, President of Overseas Business, Alibaba Mobile Business told Business Insider India.

Alibaba's UCWeb is reportedly still working on the plans around its free Internet service in India and is still in talks with "potential partners." The Chinese company is considering providing free Internet services to states that have connectivity problems. "We actually think in geographic way because in India not every state is suffering from connectivity problem so we will focus more on providing this kind of services to states that are suffering more and also we will have comprehensive analysis on already existing consumers who will actually need this kind of service," added Huang.

It's worth mentioning that Alibaba isn't the first to work on providing free Internet in the country as Facebook earlier launched its Internet.org and Free Basic projects with similar aims. However, both of Facebook's initiatives met with heavy backlash in India from "net neutrality" advocates, who claimed that Free Basics only allowed access to selected websites thus violating the principle that the entire Internet should be available to everyone on equal terms.

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.

Further reading: Internet, Alibaba, UCWeb
Ketan Pratap
Ketan Pratap is the editor at Gadgets 360 - with over 12 years of experience covering the technology domain. With a breadth and depth of knowledge in the field, he's done extensive work across news, features, reviews, and opinion pieces. But what's truly inspiring about Ketan is how he spends his free time. He's often found gazing at snow-capped mountains from over 20,000 feet while sitting on the hood of his car, taking in the breathtaking beauty of nature. His passion for the great ...More
China Proposes Further Tightening of Internet Oversight
New Low-Cost 'Lab on a Chip' Has Potential to Detect Cancer
Share on Facebook Gadgets360 Twitter Share Tweet Snapchat Share Reddit Comment google-newsGoogle News
 
 

Advertisement

Follow Us

Advertisement

© Copyright Red Pixels Ventures Limited 2024. All rights reserved.
Trending Products »
Latest Tech News »