Telkomsel is trying to reach more Facebook users in Indonesia by bringing a Facebook service through Fonetwish. The service will allow access to Facebook via SMS (known as USSD), completely without using the internet. All you have to do is to press the menu *325# on any cell phone.

Of course, this innovation is deliberately targeting people who want to access Facebook but have not subscribed to any data packet or their cell phones do not support internet access. Fonetwish was developed by Singapore-based company, U2opia, and claimed to have been used by more than 300 million people all over the world. How much Telkomsel is going to set the fee for this service is still to be confirmed. In Indonesia, aside from Telkomsel, XL Axiata is also a partner of this service.

With this USSD menu, accessing various menu in Facebook is possible, including News Feed, Wall Posts, Birthday Reminder, Notifications, Manage Friends, Update Status and Chat. Currently, Fonetwish is widly used by Facebook users in India.

As cited from a press release, Ririn Widaryani, Deputy VP Product Lifecycle Management Telkomsel, said, “We are excited by the response to Fonetwish application for Facebook. Indonesia has the biggest adoption of Facebook in the region (Southeast Asia) and we expect good response to this service.”

U2opia is founded in 2010 and has been present in India, Southeast Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Recently, they received funding from Matrix Partners India.

Below is the video of how to use Fonetwish to access Facebook through USSD menu: