Bharti Airtel and Opera Software have signed an agreement that will enable the mobile operators customers in 17 African countries to use the Opera Mini browser
"By leveraging Opera's tried-and-tested set of solutions that lead to consistent and full web user experience, we are excited to provide a superior browsing platform to our mobile customers in Africa," said Bharti Airtel president for consumer business K Srinivas.
The company stated that in African markets, data services were becoming as equally important to its customers as voice services.
Airtel's presence in emerging markets, combined with Opera's compression technology, will help make the mobile web available to millions of new users, according to Opera Software chief executive officer Lars Boilesen.
The company said that Opera Mini's proxy-server-based technology could compress data by up to 90 per cent and decrease users' data transfer costs.
Boilesen added, "Our primary drive is to provide the best user experience, no matter what device people use.
"There are millions of users with basic mobile phones instead of smartphones and Opera Mini gives even the most basic phone a smartphone-like web experience."
Opera also has a partnership with African cellphone manufacturer, Mi-Fone, which specialises in creating inexpensive handsets designed specifically for the continent's market.
