Facebook to offer 'toll-free data' on 3 Ireland

StaticNoise

Facebook have announced that 3 (Three) Ireland will be the first Irish mobile network to offer 'toll-free' or discounted data to customers for using their 'Facebook Messenger' apps that work on Android or iOS.

The announcement was made at the Mobile World Congress event (MWC), in Barcelona, yesterday, naming the networks that they have partnered with for the project. The UK isn't on the list, but our closest neighbours in on the deal are Portugal and Italy (on the TMN, and Tre networks, respectively). We're the only European networks in on the action. The rest are in Asia, the Middle East, and South America.

As it says in the press release, they claim that 3 out of 4 Facebook members use the chat service, so it is clear that they want to cash in on the action, now that they are public.

Who knows what it will mean for Three customers.





http://www.theverge.com/2013/2/25/4026948/facebook-to-offer-free-and-discounted-data-on-overseas-carriers

https://www.facebook.com/notes/facebook-mobile/discounting-data-access-to-messaging-on-mobile/476839402365084

stevenmu

StaticNoise wrote: »

Who knows what it will mean for Three customers.

I would have thought most Three customers would be on All You Can Eat data anyway. It might be useful if you were out of credit and your data has expired.

StaticNoise

Maybe they will be using it as an approach to offer free data for users who are not as data hungry (simple smartphones, basic medium-skilled internet users), or as a 'one up' against the other networks.

A part of the scheme, which I left out, is the fact that this directly deals with 'Facebook on any Phone', a product for basic phones and cheaper units. As much as this system is active in less-developed countries, maybe Three want to tap into this market. Eg. opening up the ability to 2G handsets and users for EDGE via Vodafone, or something in between?