USSD and SMS
The same ledger, the same balances and the same limits reached from a feature phone with no data — not a reduced product for poorer customers, the same product through a different door.
Anyone on a feature phone, anyone out of data, anyone in a place where the signal carries voice but not much else.
Part of the platform itself: it is present wherever BitriPay runs.
The problem
A product that requires an app and a data bundle has quietly decided who its customers are. In much of the region that decision excludes most of the market, and it excludes it permanently rather than temporarily.
How it works
- Dial the short code from any phone, including a feature phone with no data.
- Move through a numbered menu: balance, send, request, pay a code.
- Confirm with the same PIN that guards the account in the app.
- A command can also be sent by SMS, for places where even a session is unreliable.
What you can check
Facts about the running platform rather than adjectives. Each one is visible in the product, the API reference or the ledger.
- USSD and SMS reach the same accounts, the same ledger and the same limits as the app — not a parallel system with its own balances.
- The transaction PIN that protects the account in the app is the PIN that protects it over USSD.
- A session that drops mid-flow does not leave a half-made payment: the posting either happened or it did not.
- The command channel is simulated in the console, so a change can be tested without a handset.
What it costs
Operator charges for the session apply as they do for any USSD. BitriPay does not add a charge for using this door rather than the app.
Questions
Is this a cut-down version with lower limits?
No. Same account, same ledger, same limits, same PIN. The menu is smaller because a feature phone screen is smaller, not because the customer is worth less.
My session dropped in the middle. Did I pay twice?
No. The posting either happened or it did not; there is no half-made payment. Check your balance and the last transaction, and you will see which.
Why bother, when everyone is getting a smartphone?
Because "eventually" is not a payment strategy for somebody who needs to send money to their mother this afternoon. And a smartphone owner out of data is, for that afternoon, exactly the same customer.
Read next
BitriPay Lite
A full web app that works with JavaScript switched off entirely, rendered on the server, so it loads on a slow connection and an old browser instead of showing a spinner.
Offline payments
A signed promise exchanged between two phones with no network at all, with counters and nonces so the same promise cannot be spent twice when the signal returns.
Agents and cash
Cash in and out through a human being near you, with the agent paid a commission the app shows before you confirm and a float the platform watches so the agent does not run dry mid-queue.