Unstructured Supplementary Service Data - Uses

Uses

The user composes a message—usually rather cryptic—on the phone keyboard. The phone sends it to the phone company network, where it is received by a computer dedicated to USSD. The answer from this computer is sent back to the phone. The answer could be seen on the phone screen, but it is usually with a very basic presentation. The messages sent over USSD are not defined by any standardization body, so each network operator can implement whatever it finds suitable for its customers.

USSD can be used to provide independent calling services such as a callback service (e.g. cheaper phone charges while roaming), enhance mobile marketing capabilities (e.g. global service by Messaging365), or interactive data service (e.g. stock quotes, sports results).

USSD is commonly used by pre-paid GSM cellular phones to query the available balance. The vendor's "check balance" application hides the details of the USSD protocol from the user.

USSD can also be used to refill user's money balance on phone (SIM card to be exact). And to deliver One Time Passwords or PIN codes.

Some payment methods, such as VIVO PayPal in Brazil, Airtel Money and Movida in India, SharEpay, WING in Cambodia, FNB and other major banks in South Africa, Mobipay in Spain, EzyPesa, M-Pesa in Tanzania (but not in Kenya, where M-Pesa menus are provided by STK rather than USSD), and mPay in Poland use USSD.

Some operators use USSD to provide access to real-time updates from social-networking websites like Facebook and Twitter..

USSD is sometimes used in conjunction with SMS: the user sends a request to the network via USSD, and the network replies with an acknowledgement of receipt ("Thank you, your message is being processed. A message will be sent to your phone."); subsequently, one or more Mobile Terminated SMS messages communicate the status and/or results of the initial request. In such cases, SMS is used to "push" a reply or updates to the handset when the network is ready to send them; USSD is used for command-and-control only.

A good example of USSD used in conjunction with SMS is the BuyPower platform by mHITs Limited. The platform allows subscribers to pay for prepaid electricity using their carrier airtime via Direct Mobile Billing.