Cashing in on the growing popularity of the social networking website Twitter, Airtel has now introduced a plan wherein subscribers will be able to access the website for free from their mobile phones. This offer is active for a limited amount of time and will be available to more than 170 million users in India who subscribe to Airtel.
According to the network carrier, such kind of an offer has been introduced in India for the first time. Through this offering, subscribers will be able to post tweets, browse Twitter trends and current news as well as follow friends and celebrities for free while on the move through their handsets. Customers are allowed to sign up for Twitter and receive SMS updates of specific users even if they haven’t activated GPRS. This can be done by typing in the 53000 code on their mobile phones without any costs while the offer is on.
N Rajaram, Chief Marketing Officer-Consumer Business, Bharti Airtel, cited, “Today’s discerning Indian customer is increasingly relying on the mobile device for accessing everything from emails to music to social networks. In conjunction with this trend, we are pleased to introduce 90 days of free access to Twitter for mobile users in India – first on Airtel. With this, 170 million+ Airtel mobile customers will now potentially be able to enjoy Twitter’s rich interface on their mobile web browsers or access updates posted by specific users through SMS notifications free of charge. This initiative will introduce new users to an exciting world of possibilities that mobile internet enables, thus providing an impetus to data services market. Airtel has always been committed to delivering experiences that are innovative and relevant for customers. This launch reinforces our focus on this promise and adds to our list of many industry firsts.”
For availing this offer, customers have to visit mobile.twitter.com and start the sign up process through their mobile number. If they want to receive updates from a particular user, they have to SMS ‘Follow’ to 53000. Subscribers can follow others on Twitter via SMS even if they don’t possess a Twitter account of their own.
Airtel subscribers can avail of this offer till March 1, 2012 and gain free access to Twitter by visiting mobile.twitter.com.