This article needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(November 2019)
Google Free Zone was a global initiative undertaken by the Internet company
Google in collaboration with mobile phone-based Internet providers, whereby the providers waive data (bandwidth) charges (also known as zero-rate) for accessing select Google products such as
Google Search,
Gmail, and
Google+.[1] In order to use this service, users were required to have a Google account and a phone that had access to an internet connection.[2]
History
November 2012: Google Free Zone was announced by Google on November 8, 2012, with a launch in the
Philippines in partnership with
Globe Telecom, with the experimental round scheduled to run until March 31, 2013.[3][4][5]Telkom Mobile in
South Africa, then branded as 8ta, offered Google Free Zone 3 from 13 November 2012 but discontinued the service on 31 May 2013.[6]
April 2013: launch in Sri Lanka on the
Dialog mobile network.[7]
June 2013: Google launched Google Free Zone in
India in partnership with mobile Internet provider
Airtel,[8][9][10][11] and in
Thailand on the
AIS network.
December 2013: Airtel extended Google Free Zone to its services in
Nigeria.[12]
A number of Internet commentators viewed Google Free Zone as both inspired by and a potential competitor to
Facebook Zero.[15][16][17][18]
The Subsecretaria de Telecomunicaciones of
Chile ruled that Zero-rating services like Wikipedia Zero, Facebook Zero, and Google Free Zone, that subsidize mobile data usage, violate
net neutrality laws and that the practice had to end by June 1, 2014.[19][20]