Bharti Airtel and Google partnered in India to provide free access to Google products on Airtel network. The program is called Free Zone powered by Google, as part of the program users can access Google Search, Gmail and Google+ from any Airtel connection with internet enabled mobile phone.
The move is aimed at giving data access to those who are on feature phones, but it will work on smartphones as well. The program will give users access to the Google services there by revenue to Google and increase the data usage on Airtel network. This type of programs are not new, Telcos do this often particularly in countries like India. Earlier some Telcos offered free Facebook usage, free Whatsapp etc.
To access the service you need to go to airtel.in/freezone from your mobile browser. Only default browser can be used or Opera mini browser, other third party browsers are not supported. Once you are there you need to login using your Google account, then you can use the service. You can check your Gmail, use Google + and search on Google.
Although it is a free service and for everyone using Airtel there are some limitations. The data cap is set at 1GB/ month, after that you need to pay, pay as you go charges will apply. When you search on Google, you can click on the search results, but after going to the web page you can not click from there, if you do data charges apply. Airtel says it will notify users when they charge for this type of thing. If you want to search more you have to come back and click again other links.
If you have enabled Gmail 2 step authentication step then you won’t be able to login to the service, also it won’t work some phones. You can check more information, limitations here.
