While Europe and America and other Western nations have been enjoying 3G mobile technology for quite a while and with 4G on its way, Africa has fallen behind.

However, that appears to be changing as Orange intends developing 2G technology across the continent.

A spokesperson for Orange said: “USSD is a technology used by all GSM mobile devices to send information across a 2G network, and is already used widely in Africa for services such account information and callback services.”

The spokesperson added: “As USSD is familiar in the region, and as there is no barrier in terms of handset requirements, Orange expects that over one million customers will use the service in the first year.”

One of the major problems for countries within the African continent is providing a mobile phone service that is both cheap and reliable. Most countries have both social and economic problems, with the vast majority of people unable to afford services normally experienced in countries such as the UK.

Orange believes it has now found a mechanism to offer cheaper services, while at the same time bringing Africa into the mobile phone world.

Seemingly, the technology being used will also enable many Africans to make use of social networking sites, such as Facebook. Emailing and texting are already available, but this will help people gain greater access to the outside world instead of having to rely on a poorly serviced internet from computers.

The USSD technology is slightly different in that users require a code and PIN to access Facebook.