Twitter launches SMS in India with Bharti Airtel

Earlier twitter SMS updates were available in India but later twitter discontinued the SMA updates because of the cost associated with them. Now they have reached a sort of exclusive deal with Bharti Airtel, India’s largest mobile operator. Bharti Airtel customers can now send tweets from their mobile phones @Rs.1, and they can receive the tweets for free.

Rs.1 per SMS is a good deal and also receiving tweets is free. The customers who are already on twitter can send START to 53000 to receive tweets. New users can SMS Signup to 53000 to complete the registration. Airtel twitter page has more details.

Although it looks like an exclusive deal it is not, the exclusivity is only for 4weeks and later other telcos will also join the twitter fun.

Twitter partnership with Airtel makes sense as internet penetration in India is not very high, and there are millions of people with mobile phones. Twitter Co-Founder Biz Stone says “Our partnership with Bharti Airtel, the largest mobile operator in India, means a huge population of people can now send tweets at standard rates and receive tweets for free.”

From Twitter Blog.

Bharti Airtel is offering people in every city, every village, every remote taluk and even the smallest panchayat the opportunity to connect to Twitter and enjoy the open exchange of information with no added fees. We are proud to have Bharti Airtel as our partner. Give Twitter a try with your Airtel phone by sending START to 53000. And spread the word!
Twitter is not about technology, it’s about people. We worked quickly to establish full SMS service in India with the largest operator because organic growth in the region has been unusually strong and there is huge potential for positive impact.