Idea Cellular is giving away 200,000 hours of free internet access, over the next 20 days, to its users through the web pass service on Opera Mini. For users who have never experienced the internet from their mobiles before, this is the easiest way to shed inhibitions and get online.

Idea Web Pass is a unique Opera solution that allows consumers to buy customized data packs within the Opera Mini browser itself. It’s great for those people who have short-term data requirements and don’t wish to pay for a full time internet plan. In India, web passes are currently available only on the Idea network, starting at just Re 1 for hourly internet access/ daily Facebook access and go up to Re 30 for a week’s internet access. With a Sponsored Web Pass, users pay only one paise for acquiring the web pass, and the rest is taken care of by the sponsor, in this case Idea.

To enjoy free internet, Opera Mini users simply have to go to the Speed Dial page in Opera Mini and click on ‘Idea Web Pass’. From here, they can select ‘Free Internet Trial Pass (3 MB)’ from the list of web passes. Users can avail one web pass each during this campaign, which entitles them to one hour of free internet, upto 3 MB, during that day.

The 200,000 hours of free internet are available for the next 20 days. On each day, the Free Internet Trial Pass can be availed by 10,000 users on a first-come, first-served basis.

Idea subscribers who don’t already have Opera Mini on their phones can visit m.opera.com and download Opera Mini absolutely free. Opera Mini works on almost all kinds of phones, from basic Java phones to the latest Android and iOS smartphones. Opera Mini’s unique compression technology shrinks a webpage to almost as little as 10% of it’s original size. So when it comes to viewing webpages, Opera Mini users can browse a lot more of them within a set data limit as compared to other mobile browsers.