Airtel brings SMS-based Twitter service to India
October 16th, 2009 by Kunal
SMS-based tweeting has once again come to India, this time through the cellphone service provider Airtel. The service is already available in various countries such as the US, Canada, the UK and New Zealand.
Currently users in India can access Twitter via their desktop internet connections or by using GPRS on their cellphones. Now mobile users can continue to add to their timelines by texting their tweets after Airtel and Twitter have joined hands to bring the social media microblogging service Twitter to another convenient platform. Standard SMS rates apply @ Rs. 1. Other users’ tweets would be received through an incoming SMS that would be free.
Unfortunately (or not?) this SMS-tweeting service will be exclusive to Airtel for a period of only four weeks. This could mean that Twitter might decide to collaborate with other service providers for the same service.
The SMS tweet functionality is ideal for those who do not have GPRS compatible handsets and for those who do not have a GPRS option available in their area. However, a monthly GPRS plan and a mobile twitter client can be a cheaper option for regular Tweeters.
Airtel users can start receiving tweets by typing ‘START’ and sending it to 53000 from their Airtel mobile phones.
via [Mobiletor]
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Categories: Entertainment, mobile app | Tags: Airtel India, Airtel Twitter, Airtel Twitter SMS, twitter, twitter India, Twitter SMS India, Twitter text
This is a nice initiative from Twitter though launching at Diwali time in India does not make much sense as most of telecoms giant will be increasing the SMS rate for 3 days in Diwali.
The press release says that standard rates would apply for the four week contract period. At one place the price of Rs. 1/SMS is also mentioned. So, i believeit could be either ways.