Airtel gives its customers free access to Facebook

The many fans of Facebook now have good reason to rejoice, especially if they are Airtel phone subscribers – they can access the networking site on all types of handsets, without spending money on internet usage.

Bharti Airtel on Tuesday launched the new application from Singapore-based software applications developer U2opia Mobile. The technology involved is Unstructured Supplementary Data (USSD), the same that is used by telecom companies to send alerts to their users, such as for missed calls.

This will now enable users to send and view updates on their friends' Facebook walls.

"We are using USSD technology, which will enable users to access Facebook without having a GPRS connection on their phones," said Sumesh Menon, the co-founder and chief executive of U2Opia Mobile, at the launch of the service in New Delhi.

While Airtel customers can update their Facebook status through this USSD service free of cost, Re1 per day will be charged applicable for accessing the full-feature application, which enables viewing news feeds, comment or feedback on news feed stories, posting on friends' walls, confirming friend requests, viewing notifications, and adding friends.

However, Menon clarified that the technology will not provide access to graphics.