Finnish Sibesonke —a spinoff from Nokia Siemens Networks is using SMS and the USSD text-based browsing protocol, both of which are part of the GSM technical standard to enable social networking or polls participation to users on any phone.

Sibesonke has the first project in South Africa, where users only hs to dial *120*686# to establish a data call that gives them a text screen on their phone. From there, they can access job ads, buy-and-sell services, health information, social connections…