Oct 30 (Reuters) - Google will offer 18-month free

access to its Gemini AI service for all 505 million telecom

users of India's Reliance Jio, a tie-up that follows similar

freebies from rivals including OpenAI to boost adoption in the

world's most populous nation.

The move also comes weeks after Google committed to invest

$15 billion in AI infrastructure capacity in India, its biggest

investment yet in the critical South Asian market.

AI apps have exploded in popularity in recent months in

India, prompting authorities this month to propose sweeping

rules for AI and social media firms to clearly label

AI-generated content to tackle the spread of deepfakes and

misinformation.

MIRRORING THE STREAMERS' PLAYBOOK

With nearly 1 billion internet users, India has been a go-to

market for global tech firms to boost their subscriber base and

harvest data for improving their services.

The Gemini offer will give Jio users free access to the

advanced model of the AI app, two terabytes of cloud storage,

and its image and video generation models, in an 18-month

offering that is otherwise priced at 35,100 rupees ($399). The

companies on Thursday also announced AI partnerships that

targeted Indian businesses.

The free AI plan rollout will begin with early access for

18-to-25-year-old users on certain telecom plans, and will

expand to include every Jio customer nationwide "in the shortest

time possible," Reliance said in a statement.

Google already offers Gemini AI Pro free for a year for

students in India, while rival Perplexity is offering free

access to its premium plan to Indian users through a tie-up with

mobile carrier Bharti Airtel. On Tuesday, OpenAI too

offered year-long free access to its ChatGPT Go plan to users in

India starting November.

Such moves mirror the early playbook of streaming firms to

boost adoption in India, when the likes of Netflix and Amazon

Prime partnered with telecom players to bundle their paid

offerings with monthly data plans.

($1 = 87.8950 Indian rupees)