Airtel Launches USSD Based Facebook Access Service In India

Airtel today announced that starting today, its 150 million plus customers in India can now simply dial *325# (and “*fbk#” for non-qwerty mobile handsets) to access Facebook without subscribing to data plans.

To deliver this, Airtel has launched the world’s first USSD-based service innovation that will allow its mobile customers to update their Facebook status messages, view / comment on / ‘Like’ news feed, post on friends’ walls, find / add friends, confirm friend requests, view notifications and much more without using the internet or activating GPRS capabilities.

What can Airtel customers do using USSD-based Facebook access service?

• Update Facebook status for free

• View / comment on / ‘Like’ news feeds, post on friends’ walls, confirm friend requests, view notifications, find and add friends – at Re 1 / day per use.

USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) is a menu-based system that enables interfacing with content based services. Instead of a browser, which requires an internet / GPRS connection), the USSD menu acts as browser to pull content to the phone.

Malsawm February 8, 2013 at 10:04 pm

Airtel via USSD should stop fooling around. 1 rupee a day. my shit. They deduct ten buck for 7 days. how do u explain this sir?

Suresh Kumar May 18, 2011 at 11:05 pm

Though it’s an old channel… looking at the kind of handsets Indian market (esp Rural) is having and adoption of GPRS n other data services, USSD can be considered as an excellent way to allow users with low end handsets to use FB! i agree that from usability perspective it’s not that easy to use and ppl might loose interest due to lack of easy to use menus and interactivity…
As a step ahead to overcome these limitations… we can very soon see the FB app on STK which can offer more easy to use menus to use FB… and STK Menus being present on all the SIM cards, every handset user can use these menus withour subscribing to any Data plan…

ved May 18, 2011 at 5:54 am

In reliance facebook (0.facebook.com) is already free since 1 year either u surf in Reliance 3g or Reliance 2G its totally free…………

jan May 17, 2011 at 11:47 pm

if you have n sms pack nd activated sms update facility of facebuk, dn you cn update nd cment n status…
Get updates automaticaly etc.,via sms
dn y shud v pay rs. 30…

Tech May 17, 2011 at 11:04 pm

good news
free acces facebook on airtel

Santu Sovan Mandal May 17, 2011 at 8:44 pm

@akhilesh
True. A real backdated application.

akhilesh May 17, 2011 at 8:21 pm

1 more reason added for bal deduction..

sam shibu May 17, 2011 at 4:47 pm

When will this crap airtel reduce broadband charges?

Rajive Borde May 17, 2011 at 4:14 pm

In the age of mobile internet, Airtel is introducing services through old-world channels.
Doesn’t this affect usability of the service and limit functionality in a major way? For example, Facebook is all about multimedia; sharing videos, and photos. Why reduce it to a text-only experience?
Even Twitter apps are focussing more and more on multimedia integration, with nifty URL shorteners and cloud based image services. Also, Facebook recently acquired Snaptu, in order to make Java apps for feature phones. It tied up with operators to offer free mobile internet when using the app. Then why go back to where we’ve come from?

pkcool May 17, 2011 at 3:08 pm

Airtel charged me 60rs for accessing zero fb via Airtel live.They deduct amount slowly not once my balance was 80rs and aftr 1 hr 60rs and then aftr 3 hrs 20rs.I am very frustrated with it what 2 do!!

Sayan Chattopadhyay May 17, 2011 at 3:01 pm

Reliance is charging me for surfing Facebook Zero and and also for R world. On last Sunday they have deduced Rs.5 from my account. I’ve contacted Reliance Care several times but no result. I also have sent several Emails to them but they don’t reply any of them.

Vishwas May 17, 2011 at 2:57 pm