Access Facebook and Twitter without mobile internet with Airtel |06 January 2012

Airtel’s brand new service – exclusively offered by the company – allows people without internet connections on their mobile phones to post statuses, receive notifications and more from the two popular social networking sites.

If one does not have a Facebook or Twitter account, then he would have to do the obvious – create one, that is – but as soon as that is set up, one has only to send an SMS to 9699 with the keyword “f” for Facebook and get to a computer which is connected to the internet.
 
After sending the SMS to 9699, you will immediately get a confirmation code; keep it handy, it will come in useful in the next steps.

After getting the code, go online to Facebook’s mobile settings and put in your confirmation code in the code text box. Click confirm and you will get another confirmation notification and your mobile information will reflect on your profile. You are now good to go.

The other way to set up your phone and link it to Facebook, is to SMS 9699 with the keyword “fb”. You will get a confirmation code and a link from Facebook to click in case you are on a mobile device. Follow the link or go to Facebook’s mobile settings and put your confirmation code in the text box that will appear.

Click confirm and you will get another confirmation notification and your mobile information will be reflected on your profile. That’s the other way to link your internet-less mobile to Facebook.

The service offers lots of options, such as updating status or posting messages on your wall, adding friends, subscribe to statuses, photos help, poke, like a page and even to unsubscribe.

Although people whose phones have internet connections can still get the service – and can do more like add photos or attach videos – this special service is targeting those with “simple” phones, who wish to still get to know the latest happenings on the social networking sites.

Airtel’s marketing manager Micky Belle said the idea here is to use an SMS to update your Facebook and more.

“Its cheaper, at the cost of a SMS, and allows the user to control his budget and furthermore it is very straightforward to set up,” he said.

Users can get more details or be taken through the process by contacting Airtel Customer Care on 4600600.

I.H.