Orange Making Facebook Accessible on Every Phone in Africa
- Friday, February 17th, 2012
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Orange has begun its launch of Facebook via USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data), a service intended to provide social network access to the full range of mobile customers in Africa. USSD is used to transfer information across a 2G network, and enables older handsets to access Facebook via an SMS-based service.
“Social networks such as Facebook have completely changed how people stay in contact with their family and friends, and it’s important that our customers, regardless of the phone they have, are able to access and participate in these services,” says Xavier Perret, vice president of strategic partnerships at Orange. “We feel that it is our role to help our customers enjoy a digitally rich, connected life.” 
The service will launch in Côte dIvoire this month, with further African markets following throughout 2012. Orange expects a take-up of over 1m customers for the service in the first year.
