<p>Continuing its steady trudge into mobile messaging, Facebook announced on Monday a multi-carrier partnership that will allow users in some countries to send Facebook messages with little or no impact on their cellular data plans.</p><p>The partnership, which includes participation from more than 18 carriers across 14 different countries, offers free or discounted cellular data access to people using Facebook's Messenger application for iOS, Android and Facebook on feature phones.</p><p>The story here is the locations Facebook has targeted in its initiative. Participating carriers span multiple continents including those in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and South America key to Facebook's continued growth as it reaches the higher end of United States population penetration. Even those who aren't sure they want to hop on the Facebook train can take advantage of the deal, thanks to Facebook's "no account, no problem" initiative which allows people who don't have a Facebook account to still use Facebook Messenger.</p><p>That's effective for a few reasons. First, the countries this deal targets aren't necessarily beholden to Facebook in the first place; remember, there are a number of other social networks in the world, and Facebook isn't the top dog in every country. Give folks more incentive to use Facebook by making it cheaper to do so, and perhaps you'll convert a new user to the network.</p><p><a href="http://allthingsd.com/20130225/facebook-partners-with-carriers-to-bring-cheaper-messaging-abroad/">Keep reading...</a></p><p>Read also:</p><p><a href="http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/facebook-now-offering-cut-price-messaging-for-mobiles-1133582">Facebook now offering cut-price messaging for mobiles</a> (TechRadar UK)</p><p><a href="http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/25/facebook-carrier-deal/">Facebook and 18 carriers to offer discounted mobile messaging data in 14 ...</a> (Engadget)</p><p><a href="http://www.itweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=61989:Facebook-offers-cheap-mobile-messaging">Facebook offers cheap mobile messaging</a> (ITWeb)</p><p>Explore: <a href="http://news.google.com/news/more?ncl=da5dR3-rkz48foMfxUip1lY-jj-UM&ned=us">50 additional articles.</a></p>