Alibaba has a plan to provide affordable data services and even internet in India, partnering with telecom operators as well as Wi-Fi providers in the country.

The Chinese e-commerce giant is still working on its plans and currently in talks with potential partners in India. According to Alibaba’s search and software division UCWeb, the company is looking for more opportunities in India while working on last-mile access.

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“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.

Alibaba’s free internet initiative is will go a long way but it will not launch in all regions of India. China-based Alibaba prefer states where people are having difficulty to access a good internet connection. They will be looking at regions which suffer from connectivity issues. 

Mr. Huang said that aside from providing the free internet to regions with connectivity problem, they will be working on comprehensive analysis on existing consumers who will need this kind of service as well.

Alibaba is not the first company that has offered free internet in India. US-headquartered Internet giant Google and Facebook have already launched Wi-Fi programs in India to increase rural internet penetration in the country.

Recently, Alibaba Group has announced an investment of Rs. 2 billion to UCWeb in India and Indonesia in the coming two years. It also plans to hire over thirty thousand bloggers and content developers as well as launching compensation plan for contributors and writers. 

TagsAlibaba, Free internet, India, free wi-fi, Facebook Free Basics Initiative