Indian telecom operator BSNL has tied up with U2opia Mobile to offer social media network Facebook without any Internet or data connectivity to its mobile phone customers.

State-run BSNL said its users will be charged Rs 4, Rs 10 and Rs 20 for 3 days, weekly and monthly plans, respectively.

Earlier, private telecom operators such as Aircel and Telenor announced cost effective data packages to access Facebook on their smartphones. Accessing Facebook is one of the growth engines for data boom in India.

The public sector telecom firm has tied up with U2opia Mobile to provide Facebook access through USSD in East and South zones immediately and shortly the service will be launched in West and North zones.

Unstructured supplementary service data (USSD) technology is used by telecom operators to send alerts to their users. It can be used for pre-paid call-back service, location-based content services and menu-based information services.

BSNL said Facebook for USSD enables users to access their accounts, view/post status messages, respond to friend requests, write on friends’ walls, view birthday reminders and send messages without any Internet or data connection.

“Companies today are looking at enhancing the portfolio of offerings to voice and SMS customers and we are really excited to offer Facebook on USSD, given the rising popularity of social media,” said BSNL Director Anupam Shrivastava.

The service would work on all kinds of handsets.

“These services are perfect for our always-connected customers who want to stay in touch with their Facebook friends – anytime, anywhere, on any mobile,” said U2opoia Mobile CEO Sumesh Menon.

TelecomLead News Team