Axiata Group Berhad and Wikimedia Foundation today announce that all carriers among the group will give free mobile Wikipedia access through Wikipedia Zero program. This free access will be given for Wikipedia’s local and English version.

Kul Takanao Wadhwa, Head of Mobile with the Wikimedia Foundation said, “We applaud Axiata for joining us in removing a major barrier to accessing Wikipedia on mobile phones. This partnership is an important step forward in our mission to enable everyone on the planet to access free knowledge. With Axiata, one of the largest Asian telecommunication providers, we’re now able to expand free access to Wikipedia in more countries. With this partnership, Wikipedia Zero is now available to 410 million mobile users around the world.”

Wikipedia Zero will give benefit to everybody who needs access to modern knowledge source like Wikipedia. This sort of cooperation, giving free access for mobile site, has been utilized to promote some social media products, like with Facebook and Twitter.

The member of Axiata Group that support this program are Dialog Axiata (Sri Lanka), Smart Axiata (Cambodia), Celcom Axiata (Malaysia), Robi Axiata (Bangladesh) and XL Axiata (Indonesia). It will be rolled out in all operators starting this March 2013.

Before cooperating with Axiata Group, Wikimedia has already made similar partnership with Orange, Telenor, STC and VimpelCom. For further information about Wikipedia Zero, readers may access it here.