It is easy to forget how many mobile users in the world do not have full web access on their handsets but are still using featurephones. That has ensured a long survival for the unglamorous workhorse of GSM technologies, the USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) protocol, which allows basic web services to be accessed from featurephones. Having enjoyed a revival based on mobile money services for the unbanked, there is now new potential for USSD, to deliver IoT services over 2G networks in emerging economies. USSD has been supported by some companies, such as Myriad Technologies, which have been heavily focused on emerging economies. Myriad’s subsidiary, Thingstream, is now pushing into the IoT. The GSM protocol has also caught the…