Ontech USSD Gateway · *388#
No app. No smartphone. No SIM toolkit. Point a *388*N# shortcode at your HTTPS endpoint and you're on every handset in the country — across MTN, Airtel and Zamtel, through one gateway. We POST JSON, you reply JSON. That's the whole integration.
// we send you every session, as JSON { "session_id": "AX-92f1...", "msisdn": "260971234567", "user_input": "1", "is_new_request": true, "shortcode": "388*100", "mno": "AIRTEL" }
// you answer with the screen + a flag { "response_string": "Welcome to Acme\n1. Balance\n2. Pay", "continue_session": true } // continue_session:false ends the call
Two fields back. No SDK to install, no state machine to run on your side — the gateway keys each dialog by session_id.
From zero to a live code
01
Create a developer account, verify your email, and get your API keys. Build and walk full USSD journeys in the browser simulator — no handset needed.
02
Verify your email and a *388*N# code is issued instantly — free, with 120 sessions over a 5-day proof-of-concept. Point your callback URL at it from the portal and you're live. Need more runway? Extend by mobile money from K350/week — no approval queue, ever.
03
Point the code at your endpoint and dial in. Real traffic flows across all three networks, with per-session logs, latency and success rates in your dashboard.
A quick tour of the integration and the free signup — no sound needed.
See it end to end
Watch the whole path — the JSON contract, the free code, the sign-up form — then take it yourself.
Why build here
MTN, Airtel and Zamtel behind a single endpoint and a single shortcode. Write once; reach every subscriber.
An HTTP POST in, a JSON reply out. Any language, any framework. If it can serve a webhook, it can run USSD.
A live simulator walks your menus per network, so you test the whole flow before a shortcode ever goes live.
Per-session logs you can search and export, success-rate and latency dashboards, and usage-based billing — no analytics to wire up.
A live *388*N# code and 120 sessions, issued the moment you verify your email. No card, nothing to pay to go live.
Sign up, wire one webhook, and be live on *388# across Zambia today — free, with 120 sessions to prove it out.