Mobile messaging service provider Dotgo has announced that Ghanaian MNO Airtel Ghana has deployed its SMS-based internet service to its 4 million subscribers. The SMS Web Browser gives all mobile phone users access to the internet without cellular data or Wi-Fi. In order to use it, the subscriber sends an SMS to Dotgo containing the name of the website they wish to visit, and Dotgo then responds with an interactive menu-based version of the website condensed and formatted for SMS.

Tarifica’s Take

We have written extensively on the growing worldwide data, and it is important to bear in mind that that hunger extends even to customers in developing economies who cannot yet afford data access. SMS-based workarounds like Airtel Ghana’s are valuable interim measures to satisfy this demand as much as they can under the circumstances and thereby to ensure that as many users as possible upgrade to smartphones and data plans as soon as possible.