VimpelCom to Offer Free Mobile Wikipedia Access Through Wikipedia Zero

VimpelCom

and the Wikimedia Foundation, operator of Wikipedia, the web-based, multilingual, free-content encyclopedia project, today announced a partnership to deliver free Wikipedia access to VimpelCom customers. Through Wikipedia Zero, VimpelCom's mobile customers will have free access to the mobile version of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, along with a light-weight, text-only fast version of the site. Locally-relevant articles in local language versions of Wikipedia will be available along with the English version. Wikipedia is the largest collection of knowledge ever assembled. Featuring more than 23 million articles available in 280 languages, Wikipedia is the world's fifth most visited website with a 483 million-strong global readership. Mikhail Gerchuk, VimpelCom's Group Chief Commercial and Strategy Officer, said:  "The world's sixth largest telecommunications company and fifth largest website globally are coming together to offer our customers a better mobile experience and greater access to free knowledge, particularly in emerging markets. This is a win-win partnership that helps us to promote the mobile internet to our customers while contributing to Wikipedia's mission to bring free access to the entire world's knowledge." "We're very happy VimpelCom