Mobile innovations make Globe’s Free Facebook offer a world’s first

MANILA, Philippines - Addressing key issues on mobile Internet use in the country, Globe Telecom has taken advantage of the latest technologies to provide its over 36 million subscribers free access to Facebook along with first-of-their-kind mobile innovations for the best customer experience, making the telco’s Free Facebook offer a world’s first.

Aside from allowing access to Facebook for an initial period of three months at zero data charges, Globe worked with Facebook’s engineers from Silicon Valley to offer customer experience innovations that aim to overcome fear of mobile browsing.

In collaboration with Facebook, Globe has put together innovations that cover key milestones in the customer experience journey such as availability of access on feature phones and smartphones (except BlackBerry; Free Facebook will soon be available to Nokia Xpress and Opera Mini users) across all Facebook mobile platforms whether via the Facebook app or Facebook’s mobile site m.facebook.com.

Customers are also guaranteed of no bill shock or “nakaw load” as they will be notified if they will incur data charges once a link that leads out of Facebook is clicked.

For a seamless experience, subscribers can also enjoy a one-click registration to the data plan of choice to continue browsing sites or links outside Facebook without having to leave the site.

In the spirit of customization, recommended data plans consider a subscriber’s available prepaid balance and/or megabytes (MB) balance of existing data plan.

Finally, customers with not enough prepaid load can “loan” a 10MB data plan for only P10 that will be deducted on their succeeding top-up so they can fully explore content outside Facebook.

As of June this year, there were 1.15 billion Facebook users around the world, 819 million of whom were monthly active users on mobile while 470 million were daily active users on mobile.

The Philippines has over 30 million Facebook users and is one of the top 10 countries in the world with the most number of users of the social networking site.

“Globe knows that to bring the next billion online will require deep collaboration between players across the ecosystem. For the past several years, Globe has been on the forefront of partnering with leading digital players and as a result, brought millions online,” said Peter Bithos, senior advisor for consumer business of Globe Telecom.

“Now, with our partnership with Facebook, we are leading the way for carriers globally. With this breakthrough partnership, we will give our 36 million subscribers uninterrupted, seamless and worry-free Free Facebook experience without the need for Wi-Fi,” Bithos said.

Bithos added: “This is not just a carrier zero-rating some links. This is deep collaboration between Globe and Facebook for a seamless customer experience to overcome the fear of using mobile Internet. This is collaboration at its peak to get more people online and connected with each other around the world.”

Starting Oct. 31, subscribers can dial *143# and select FREE FB or text FREEFB to 8888 to download more information or access Free Facebook.

Subscribers may also go to m.facebook.com/free on the phone’s Web browser or open the Facebook mobile app while on the Globe network to access Free Facebook.