{"id":26350,"date":"2012-11-13T09:36:06","date_gmt":"2012-11-13T07:36:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=26350"},"modified":"2012-11-13T10:21:33","modified_gmt":"2012-11-13T08:21:33","slug":"google-and-8ta-partner-for-free-web-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/internet\/26350\/google-and-8ta-partner-for-free-web-services\/","title":{"rendered":"Google and 8ta partner for free web services"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a title=\"Google\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/forum\/showthread.php\/1719-Google\">Google<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a title=\"8ta\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/forum\/showthread.php\/1669-8ta\">8ta<\/a>\u00a0announced \u201cFree Zone powered by Google\u201d at G-South Africa in Cape Town today (13 November 2012), letting users access select Google mobile web services for free.<\/p>\n<p>The two companies said that the following services are available for free from mobile phone browsers through Free Zone:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Gmail<\/strong>: Users have unlimited access to Gmail from their mobile browser. If users click on a link or attachment within the e-mail they are directed to a page where they can purchase a data package.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Google+<\/strong>: Users can share photos and messages with circles of family, selected friends or the public; follow updates on the things they are passionate about &#8211; from football to photography, music to news; and follow people they\u2019re interested in.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Google Search<\/strong>:\u00a0Users can search the entire internet and access the first page of websites from the results for free. If they click further into a website after that, they are directed to a page where they can purchase a data package.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cGiven that data can be expensive for many South Africans, the open web is only as open as it is affordable,\u201d said\u00a0<a title=\"Luke Mckend\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/forum\/showthread.php\/6020-Luke-Mckend\">Luke Mckend<\/a>, country manager of Google South Africa. \u201cWorking with 8ta on this exciting trial means that we can offer Internet services at no cost to anyone with a phone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>8ta\u2019s senior managing executive,\u00a0<a title=\"Amith Maharaj\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/forum\/showthread.php\/2880-Amith-Maharaj\">Amith Maharaj<\/a>, said that he was really proud bring this service to market, adding that it requires flexible and cutting edge technology and billing systems to do so.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEffectively it means that all South Africans can have access to Google Search, Google e-mail and Google social networking by simply using any 8ta SIM card on any data enabled handset, no matter how old, free of charge,\u201d Maharaj said. \u201cThis is a big deal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The service is available immediately to all 8ta subscribers from their mobile phones at 8ta.com\/freezone.<\/p>\n<p>8ta said that users will be informed about data charges and given the option to purchase an appropriate data package should they leave Free Zone.<\/p>\n<p>Free Zone will be trialled until 31 May 2013, 8ta said.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"related\">Related articles<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/broadband\/63634-best-data-deals-in-south-africa.html\"><strong>Best data deals in South Africa<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cellular\/63078-unlimited-voice-calls-at-a-flat-rate-from-8ta.html\"><strong>Unlimited voice calls at a flat rate from 8ta<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wireless\/62532-free-wi-fi-in-cabs-from-8ta.html\"><strong>Free Wi-Fi in cabs from 8ta<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/broadband\/62476-free-8ta-lte-trial-details.html\"><strong>Free 8ta LTE trial details<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/columns\/64234-telkom-troubles-mounting.html\"><strong>Telkom troubles mounting<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>8ta and Google recently unveiled Free Zone for Google services on the 8ta network<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":6761,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9882],"tags":[407,409,53,26,1538],"class_list":["post-26350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-internet","tag-8ta","tag-amith-maharaj","tag-google","tag-headline","tag-luke-mckend"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26350"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26350\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26353,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26350\/revisions\/26353"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}