VPN reach grows well beyond its launch countries

Mozilla says the free VPN built into Firefox for Android is now available in more than 200 regions. The claim comes from the developer's notes for the latest update, version 157.0.1.

For Android users outside the original launch countries, that could mean the VPN option now appears in the browser. Mozilla's notes do not say how the wider rollout is being staged, and earlier VPN releases reached users gradually.

From 29 countries in July

Mozilla began rolling out the VPN to Firefox for Android users on July 28, according to an update on its blog. At that point it covered the countries where the desktop version was already offered, including the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, Japan and much of Europe.

The VPN first shipped in the desktop browser with Firefox 149 in March. Mozilla launched it with a free allowance of 50 GB a month. Mozilla told Tom's Guide at the time that it is a separate proxy covering browsing in Firefox only. It said its paid Mozilla VPN remains the option for full-device protection and unlimited bandwidth.