Airtel launches free Twitter access on Mobile!

Airtel today announced that it will be offering free twitter access to Airtel mobile users till 1st March 2012.
This announcement will enable over 170 million Airtel mobile users to enjoy free Twitter access via mobile.twitter.com. Additionally,  they can also use SMS shortcode 53000 to sign up for Twitter and even Tweet or receive Tweets from specified users.
Due to the fact that Airtel has enabled use of Twitter via SMS Shortcode , millions of Airtel customers who do not have GPRS or have basic features phones can still enjoy free Twitter Access!

How to access Twitter using Airtel service

• Using Twitter mobile website:

Visit mobile.twitter.com (with or without GPRS subscription), follow simple sign up process by entering your mobile number and start using!

• How to new account on Twitter on SMS:

SMS ‘START’  to 53000, upon receiving reply – SMS ‘SIGNUP’ to 53000. Next, type a username (unique and less than 15 characters) and send that to 53000. Once Twitter approves your username, you will get a confirmation message, prompting you to SMS a chosen password to 53000. On completion of this process, your Twitter account will be created. Sign up is only required if a user wants to tweet!

• Follow specific Twitter users on SMS

To receive updates from a specific user, SMS ‘Follow <username>’ to 53000. Users can follow others on Twitter on SMS even without having a Twitter account of their own

• For Existing Twitter Users

Existing Twitter users can now view their timeline, find and follow accounts, post new Tweets, see Tweets mentioning them, and reply to other users and retweet their Tweets – all for free on Airtel from now till 1st March 2012.
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I think this is going to be a trend moving forward – Earlier, Mobile Operators used to compete on just one thing – pricing. However, they have realized competing on pricing is harming them more. There is a definite shift, where most mobile operators are now concentrating on offering Value Added services like these. In longer run, Value Added services offered by these telecom providers will be key in increasing and retaining their customer base.