Here’s an interesting and rather clever little promotion. The UK’s Three network has launched 0.facebook.com – a custom mobile version of Facebook for mobile users on its network.
The clever and interesting thing? Mobile customers connected to this “Facebook Zero” through Three will be exempt from data fees when accessing Facebook through that address on their mobile phones, so browse away even if you’re paying by the MB for mobile data.
It doesn’t work on a PC, unsurprisingly. Here’s the press release:
Three Launches 0.facebook.com, a Free Way to Access Facebook® on Your Mobile Device
0.facebook.com is lightweight and optimised for speed; Three’s standard data charges do not apply for site
London, UK and PALO ALTO, Calif. – September, 8, 2010 – Three today announced that it is now offering its customers free mobile browsing on the new 0.facebook.com site. By sponsoring 0.facebook.com Three is enabling its customers to stay connected through Facebook with their friends and family from any mobile Web browser without incurring any data charges.[1]
Facebook’s 0.facebook.com site is optimised for speed – it is a new faster, lightweight version of Facebook’s mobile site m.facebook.com. The site does not have graphics or photos and 0.facebook.com’s pages have been designed for performance on Three’s network. Photos posted on Facebook are only one click away from 0.facebook.com. To view a photo a person only needs to click on a link to the photo and they will be prompted that they are leaving 0.facebook.com. Standard data charges will apply when a person leaves 0.facebook.com to view photos.
“At Three, we want to make the mobile internet easy and affordable for everyone,” says Charlotte Blanchard Director of Products & Services at Three. “We are delighted to work with Facebook to bring one of the most visited mobile websites to our customers for free. We have the only 100% 3G network in the UK so that we can provide our customers with the very best experience of the mobile internet”
“We are always looking to work with innovative companies to provide simple and fast mobile access to Facebook across the world,” said Henri Moissinac, Head of Mobile Business, Facebook. “Thanks to our collaboration with Three, people will be able to stay connected to their friends on Facebook while they are on the go – all completely free.
[1] Three is offering free access (no mobile internet data charges) to the 0.facebook.com service to its subscribers for at least one full year. The length of the offer is at the discretion of the mobile operator.
HTC’s 4.3″ dual-core Android model, powered by Qualcomm’s all-new S4 processor. It’s smaller than the enormous One X, but is it as nice as its bigger brother? (SPOILER: Yes it is).
HTC is very much B-A-C-K at the top of the Android world with this, its quad-core flagship for 2012. Great camera, huge 4.7″ display and Android 4.0 running beautifully well.
Sony returns with an all-new mobile design for 2012, pairing a dual-core processor with a 720p display. It’s a lovely phone, but is it enough to end our Samsung and HTC obsession?
LG’s updated Prada phone comes with an absolutely crazy black & white theme, but is it just for fashionable suit wearers who want to make themselves look a bit more interesting?
word
/ September 27, 2010Interesting – we’ve had that feature since May!
Gary C
/ September 27, 2010Who’s “we”?
word
/ September 27, 2010You’re right, Gary, I could have been a bit more specific!
In this case “we” applies to folks in countries listed in the Facebook blog announcing 0.facebook.com in May (among them Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Lithuania and Turkey).
http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?q=0.facebook.com
Gary C
/ September 27, 2010Oh dear. Massive knowledge hole discovered :(
Mark
/ September 27, 2010I know this isn’t specific to this story, but i spoke to someone in the Three store (Norwich) today about the Desire 2.2 update, to which the kind fellow said “I’ve been asked a bit about this, after research it’ll be early October”. I did mention that the Hero update did take a while (to which he said nothing). Hope this helps fellow 3 sufferers
neumaennl
/ September 28, 2010This is also available for customers of the eplus network in Germany or one of its subsidiaries like simyo or blau.de