Few months back, Vodafone subscribers were allowed to send and receive SMS notifications from Twitter. Now Orange joins the league and their subscribers can tweet and receive alerts via SMS as a part of their standard mobile plan.
The network carrier also claims to be the first carrier in the UK to allow subscribers to upload and share photos with their followers via MMS. This pan-European partnership will facilitate Orange customers to integrate Twitter features into their mobile service, without downloading any special software or pay extra for services.
Paul Francois Fournier, Executive Vice President of Orange’s Audience and Advertising division, quoted, “At Orange we are committed to giving people fast and simple access to services that let them keep in touch with their friends and communities. As a major telecommunications player, we bring Twitter to a significant European audience. By integrating Twitter into our various mobile and internet services we are making it a greater part of people’s every day lives and ensuring our customers get access to the most relevant and exciting mobile multimedia services available. Twitter will thus extend the range of Orange partnerships already established with major players such as Google, Microsoft, Facebook, MySpace, Wikipedia and Ebay”.
“Sharing and discovering what’s happening in the world is a valuable exchange on all platforms. Partnering with innovative companies like Orange brings users even greater access to that powerful experience,” stated Kevin Thau, director of mobile products and partnerships, Twitter.
Subscribers can set times for receiving Tweets, opt for a maximum number of daily Tweets and chose to receive updates in real-time, hourly or daily. Users can also choose who they want to follow.
Orange and Twitter have envisaged the development of enhanced search applications for web users within Orange web portals and Orange will insert Twitter widgets and applications on mobile devices from 2010. Initially, the partnership will be implemented in the UK followed by France, Spain and Poland. In 2010 it will be put into practice in other European countries.