Twitter reportedly is working with Singapore-based mobile solutions provider U2opia Mobile to provide access to the micro-blogging website on mobile phones without Internet.
According to U2opia Mobile Chief Executive and Co-founder Sumesh Menon, users will need to dial a code to access feed of trending topics on Twitter. U2opia will be using Unstructured Supplementary Service Data telecom protocol to provide the feed, which will be text-based only.
“USSD as a vehicle for Twitter is almost hand in glove because Twitter has by design a character limit, it’s a very text-driven social network,” Menon told Reuters.
Highlighting low penetration of Internet in emerging markets, the U2opia official said the company will provide localised Twitter feed, depending on the location of a user.
“So somebody in Paraguay would definitely get content that would be very very localized to that market vis a vis somebody sitting in Mumbai or Bangalore,” he said, adding 8 out of 10 users in emerging markets don’t use Internet on their phone.
“For a lot of end users in the emerging markets, it’s going to be their first Twitter experience,” Menon added.
It’s notable Facebook had entered into a similar tie up with the mobile solutions provider. Back in 2011, Bharti Airtel was offering unlimited offline Facebook access at a daily charge of Re.1. The access, however, was restricted to text-based content such as status messages, messages, adding friend and notifications.
Source: Reuters India