The world’s most exhaustive social media network, Facebook is set to launch a ‘zero’ version of its application on mobile phones, designed for low bandwidth users. This text-only version of Facebook will ensure swift access to messages, wall posts and status updates on the move with mobile phones and smartphones.

At present there are over 100 million Facebook users worldwide and this move is hoped to improve overall accessibility. Not only will this reduce bandwidth usage for consumers, it also has the potential to free up a significant amount of network usage for UK mobile phone carriers.

Recent data from the GSM association revealed that consumers’ online usage on their mobile phones is spent around 50% of the time on social media websites such as Facebook. In December 2009 alone, consumers spent a combined total of 2.2 billion minutes on Facebook.

A spokesman for Facebook said: “We are discussing it… as an option to make Facebook on the mobile web available to everyone, anywhere and allow operators to encourage more mobile internet usage.”

The idea was mooted at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week, with the application set for introduction in the coming months.

There are already options for mobile and smartphone users to download a Facebook Lite version which is not as data-intensive, but this latest version will be stripped down to the bare minimum, ensuring users get their messages quickly and efficiently.

As mobile and smartphone capabilities continue to grow, the demand for network usage will continue to become a strain for carriers and stripped down applications and mobile phone accessories such as this will allow for greater expansion.

Tags: facebook, launched, mobile phones, zero version

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