Social networking beyond smartphones

Mahindra Comviva has launched mobile solutions wherein users neither need a data plan nor a data-enabled phone to check updates on Facebook or e-mail

Targeting social networking savvy youngsters, Mahindra Comviva launched a mobile solutions wherein users neither need a data plan nor a data-enabled phone to check updates on Facebook or even e-mail.

One of the many methods to deliver it would be using USSD update, which is a flash message that is currently used for providing balance updates for pre-paid cards.  

The service can also be provided over SMS and MMS as well.

The company believes that this solution might wean away internet cafe browsing to mobile users. The user has to register their e-mail or a networking site to the phone and they can read updates in the form of text. The solution allows users to reply or update as well.

Apart from e-mail and social networks, the solution can also support email, instant messaging, social networking, phone book backup services as well as popular news or web feeds. The cost of such services are also low, the company claims.

“This solution makes internet services available to a very wide set of people. There are a lot of people who have e-mail accounts but no internet connection. E-mail penetration is very high,” said Arun Tanksali, chief technology officer, Mahindra Comviva.

This solution can bring all the handsets in use into the data fold. While smartphone adoptions have been going up, this solution can access those untapped data markets, where demand exists.

“This options covers all the subscribers of a telecom operator,” said  Tanksali. Targeted to basic level phones, the solution also does not use up memory space on the phone, which are already low in these companies.

The company is talking to operators in India to provide this solution on their networks. “I think India has a good case for this technology,” said  Tanksali.

UAE-based Etisalat however already signed up this solution for its networks across Middle East, Africa and Asia covering 139 million subscribers.

“With smartphone adoption still low in many countries and multiple clients for each service, the user experiences get very complicated. These mar the adoption of such web services on mobile handsets. With this new engagement, we will bring such and other more richer and interactive web services for our subscribers without any such limitations,” Essa Al Haddad, Chief Executive Officer–Africa at the Etisalat Group said in the press release of the announcement.