Millicom has announced a partnership between its Tigo operation in Colombia with Facebook’s Internet.org initiative.
It follows the collaboration begun in Paraguay in December 2013 and Tanzania in April 2014.
The exclusive partnership gives Tigo customers the opportunity to access a number of information, social media and government services without any data charges via the internet.org app. As well as resources such as AccuWeather and Wikipedia, these include mobile health service MAMA and women’s empowerment initiative UN Women: Yo Aprendo.
In Colombia, Tigo has over seven million customers whilst fifteen million of Facebook’s 1.2 billion global users are based there.
Chris Daniels, Vice President of Internet.org, Facebook in Colombia, said "We are excited to expand our partnership with Tigo to bring the Internet.org app to Colombia. This is the first time the Internet.org app is available in Latin America, and by working with Tigo to make the internet more accessible through a set of free basic services, more people can come online and discover useful services and information.”
The General Manager of Tigo-UNE in Colombia, Esteban Iriarte, commented “We are delighted to be the first operator in Latin America to offer these free services. We continue to extend access to the internet and help democratise it by giving access to all our customers.”
Mario Zanotti, Millicom’s Senior Executive Vice-President Operations, commented “This is Millicom’s third partnership with Facebook which began in Paraguay in 2013. These have proven to be highly successful in promoting digital inclusion and introducing people to online services for the first time. We hope that Tigo customers in Colombia will enjoy using these as we continue to promote the wider benefits of the digital lifestyle.”
