Last week Twitter announced that it had disabled outbound SMS updates for nearly all of its international users because it has been unable to negotiate favorable deals with cellular carriers. Up until this point, Twitter has allowed users to receive incoming SMS messages free of charge, footing a bill that it says amounted to up to $1000 per user, per year. The service will continue operating in the US, India, and Canada (where Twitter has forged deals with carriers), but many international users are being left in the cold.
3Jam, a company that offers a number of SMS-related services, is looking to mimic Twitter’s lost functionality. The site has launched a new Twitter service that will deliver direct messages to users as SMS messages. Note: The link doesn’t work yet, but the company says it will go live some time tonight. At launch, the site will also offer local numbers for users in Australia, Sweden and Germany to respond to.
Unfortunately, the service has a few drawbacks. In order to take advantage of it, users will need to establish 3Jam accounts and maintain a positive balance on the site - you’re paying a small fee to restore something that used to be free. Twitter has considered offering a similar for-pay option to help offset its steep costs, but says it is currently uncomfortable offering a paid service that is notoriously unreliable.
“$1000 per user, per year.” this link is not working in the article.
Fixed, thanks for the heads up.
No need for SMS when you have Twitterific.
$1000 a year sounds too huge a amount, with bulk sms costing so less I wonder how they managed to spend $1000 a year withouth even having a revenue model in place yet
That’s what venture capital is for — so you can spend money to acquire customers in hopes of making more money from them later. I guess it was looking like $1k/user/year was going to be hard to catch up with.
TC becomes less and less interesting now. If it is not facebook, it is about twitter, or it is about YC craps.
I used to check 2-3 times a day, but now I only check once a day before bed. and stay less and less.
In my view, TechCrunch is still the best blog for web news. If you don’t like it, read another blog, or better yet, make your own. It’s what the internet is all about.
Have some patience, mate. TC can’t make up news if there isn’t anything new.
sd, get over it, twitter is a huge player in the game.
I wonder also, how did they survive such costs. I am surprised they could not cut a deal with a provider with Twitter apparently spending so much.
As mentioned in the article, they have been cutting deals with some carriers. Others not so much.
Stop asking for login credentials for other sites people!
http://www.twitsms.co.uk has already gone live for Twitter fans in the UK & other parts of the globe cut off by Twitter. For 7pence per SMS you can get your tweets back. So for 7pounds you get 100 texts (& btw we didn’t need 4mill start up capital either, just a weekend of work!). Check out our site and let us know what you think. You also get 5 free SMS to try it out.
Thanks!
Delia Timms
co-founder
http://www.twitsms.co.uk
Twitter can really help someone with personal branding. It makes someone much more exciting!
http://ryanagraves.com/08/22/2.....-exciting/