Twitter Partners With Bharti Airtel; Indian Users To Get SMS Tweets For Free

 Twitter has sealed a deal with Bharti Airtel, India’s largest mobile carrier, that will let its wireless subscribers receive tweets by SMS for free, and send them at standard rates. Co-founder Biz Stone said the company had worked “quickly” to get cheap, full-service SMS set up for users in India, because the adoption rates in the region had been “unusually strong.” This is similar to deals the company brokered with U.K.-based mobile carriers like O2 and Vodafone this summer, to help keep SMS tweets flowing at rates that were bearable for both itself, and U.K. users. (Without deals in place, the company said carriers’ fees were costing it up to $1,000 per user each year to maintain SMS service).