BSNL has launched a fresh new scheme for its customers in India, under which they will be able to receive access to social networking site Facebook without any Internet connection. In technological terms, this will be made possible by the USSD or Unstructured Supplementary Service Data technology.
This Facebook service will be charged at meager amounts. Rs 4, you will fetch you access to Facebook without any Internet for 3 days, whereas at Rs 10, the deal will extend for a week. The price of a monthly plan will go up to Rs 20, according to Business Line.
U2opia Mobile is the company which BSNL has tied up with to make this scheme a reality. Right now, it is only available for subscribers residing in the Eastern and Southern parts of India, and the other two zones will be receiving it as well, in the months to come.
The above mentioned Unstructured Supplementary Service Data technology is actually meant for use by telecom operators to send alerts to their users. They can even make use of it for pre-paid call-back, location-based content services and menu-based information services.
Through USSD, BSNL enables its customers to sign into their Facebook accounts, view and post status messages, respond to friend requests, write on friends’ walls, send messages and more. The fact that this can all be done without their devices requiring a data connection is what’s truly interesting.
To make it clear, BSNL has said that this service which allows users to access Facebook without Internet will work on ‘all kinds of handsets.’