Bharti Airtel has launched what it says is the first mobile Facebook application that runs over the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD-based) platform built into mobile phones, without using the internet or activating GPRS capabilities. A statement on the company’s group website said USSD was a menu-based system that enables interfacing with content based services. “Instead of a browser, which requires an internet or GPRS connection, the USSD menu acts as browser to pull content to the phone,” the statement said. It said the service was based on Fonetwish developed by U2opia Mobile. U2opia has also confirmed on its website that Airtel is the first and only client using the USSD technology right now. The statement quoted Bharti Airtel’s Director of Marketing, Mobile Services, Mr. Shireesh Joshi as saying "In India where the penetration of smart phones is relatively low and use of internet on mobile is primarily limited to key cities, many users are excluded from accessing their Facebook accounts via mobile phones.” He said the need for a ubiquitous access mechanism was a growing necessity - and that was exactly what Airtel's USSD service for Facebook would help deliver. Mr. Joshi noted that Facebook was seeing exponential growth in India and other emerging markets and the popularity of the platform runs across demographics in India. He said Airtel customers could update their Facebook status through the USSD service free of charge, but there are minimal charges of one rupee per day for accessing the full feature application that included viewing news feeds, commenting on or liking news feed stories, posting on friends' walls, confirming friend requests, viewing notifications, and finding as well as adding friends. It is not yet clear when Airtel would be introducing the new free-access Facebook phone in Africa and Ghana. Story by Samuel Nii Narku Dowuona/Adom News/Ghana