What is a USSD centre?
USSD centre is a collection of hardware and software required to interconnect two or more disparate networks, including performing protocol conversion.
It is based on the delivery agent’s or the source’s ability to send and receive USSD messages. It routes USSD messages from the signaling network to a service application and back and is often referred to as a ‘USSD gateway’.
What is USSD used for?
USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Services Data) is a protocol GSM cellular telephones use to communicate with the service provider’s computers. USSD is a session-based text communication protocol available on every GSM-enabled mobile device.
Because no store-and-forward mechanism is present with USSD (unlike SMS), the protocol is more practical for interactive communication, such as banking or education, establishing a real-time session between the mobile handset and the application handling the service.