yuMobile has today unveiled another freebie. The company says that it is not taking its chances with the social media community. From today, all data users on yuMobile will be able to browse all Facebook website addresses for free. This means that any URL with the main domain as Facebook.com will attract zero data charges on yuMobile network.
Asked what kind of network yuMobile users enjoy, Essar Kenya CEO – Madhur Taneja – say that “according to CCK report, yuMobile data network scored higher than the competitions. The network is 2.5G (GPRS).” This has not been convincing considering that 2.G networks can only manage data transfer rates of between 56 kbit/s up and 115 kbit/s.This is dwarfed by Safaricom, Airtel (yet to be officially launched but Live in Kisumu, Nairobi and Mombasa) and Orange 3G networks.
The new development makes yuMobile the only network which offer free full Facebook browsing. Both Safaricom and Orange offer the zero.facebook.com or 0.facebook.com also known as Facebook Zero for free. Facebook Zero is a stripped down version of Facebook which is mostly targeted at feature phones users.
Users have also demanded to know when yuMobile will start offering BlackBerry services but the company responded that RIM has suspended entering into any partnerships with new operators till January 15th 2012. yuMobile say they will pursue the negotiations with RIM when the window for new partners will be opened again.
The new “Free Facebook Browsing” offer from yuMobile is for a limited duration according to Mr Taneja.