ENTERPRISE54– Smartphone users in Zambia are now enjoying free internet services to basic web pages.

This is made possible through a partnership between Internet.org and Airtel Zambia.

Internet.org is the brainchild of Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Zuckerberg launched the project last year alongside six global mobile phone companies to get everyone in the world connected to the Internet, especially people living in developing countries.

In Zambia, Airtel will help to launch the project to millions of people and provide them with free internet access to job sites, Wikipedia, Google Search, AccuWeather, Zambia uReport, and of course, Facebook social network and messaging service.

Subscribers will be able to access free internet services through the Internet.org website which can be downloaded via Google play store.

Other internet service outside this will attract charges.

Similar projects have been launched along this line but this is the first time that Facebook is partnering with data service providers beyond free temporary access to its website.

The project will be launched in other parts of the globe gradually.

Zambia is one of the African countries with high rate internet connection fee and internet penetration is as low as 15 percent.

Facebook currently has more than 1.3 billion monthly active users. With increased internet penetration, the social media company hopes to attract more users of its networking site.

Meanwhile the social media company has appointed Andrew Bocking, a former executive at BlackBerry Messenger as the production manager of its Internet.org app.