Grameenphone, an operator in Bangladesh, is to offer a device powered by Mozilla’s Firefox OS, which is said to mark “the first joint release of Mozilla’s low-cost, open web smartphones by a mobile operator in Asia”.
The device, GoFox F15, has been created by local mobile phone brand Symphony. It is priced at “less than $60”, which is said to “open up the market to new smartphone users, introducing them to mobile data services for the first time.”
Grameenphone, which is a subsidiary of Telenor, said that the device comes preloaded with Telenor Digital’s WowBox service, “designed to get customers on the internet right away free-of-charge”.
Users need to visit the phone’s marketplace and WowBox awards them 20MB of free data per day.
Vivek Sood, CEO of Grameenphone, said: “We want more customers to experience mobile services on smartphones. By stimulating the Mozilla developer community to create more locally relevant apps coupled with Telenor’s WowBox service, we expect to see increase internet uptake and usage in Bangladesh.”
Telenor has been working with Mozilla since 2012, and has launched devices in Hungary, Serbia and Montenegro.
Mozilla announced a further push into Asia earlier this year, with deals addressing India and Taiwan.
Firefox has now launched with local partners in 23 markets across Europe, Latin America and Asia.
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