Mobile service provider Aircel on Thursday launched an “industry first” Free Basic Internet (FBI) to its prepaid customers.
Strategic Business Head of Aircel (South) K. Sankaranarayanan told reporters that the FBI service would enable new (prepaid) users avail the service for free at speed of 64 kbps (kilo bits per second) for 90 days from the date of activation and will work on all 2G and 3G networks.
It will enable searches on the Internet and social chats besides accessing e-mails, while video calling, video streaming, gaming and movie downloads will not be possible. Restriction on speed was fixed as 64kbps was found to be adequate for the basic and essential data usage.
Lack of restrictions could lead to unregulated usage thereby blocking the bandwidth and preventing other data users from a good mobile experience, he added.
Detailing the data usage based on usage frequency he said: “70 per cent of our customers access data for just about 10 days/month indicating an opportunity to tap this space.” The findings further revealed that the search application topped mobile internet usage followed by Whatsapp and other social chatting.
