Vodafone, Twitter come together

The telecom operator has collaborated with the social networking website to offer free Twitter access for three months and a Twitter for Android app.

Vodafone India has joined hands with social networking site Twitter.com to offer its customers free of cost access to the platform for three months. It is also offering 'Twitter for Android app' without any mobile internet charges for the same period.

The scheme will be available to both pre paid and post paid customers of the service provider. Vodafone clarifies that accessing other links from the tweets will attract data charges. The mobile operator will clearly prompt and inform the customer on the applicable charges in such cases.

Speaking on the initiative, Vivek Mathur, chief commercial officer, Vodafone India, says, "Vodafone India has always been at the forefront of providing innovative and user-friendly mobile internet experience for its customers in India. Our partnership with Twitter and this offering is yet another step in our ongoing endeavour to make mobile internet more fun, smart, engaging and easy."

Rishi Jaitly, market director, Twitter India, says, "We are pleased to partner with Vodafone India to offer its subscribers a unique opportunity to use Twitter to follow the people and organisations they care about. Whether it's hearing the latest news, connecting with cricket stars in real time, or laughing at the day's best jokes, Twitter brings Indians together and closer to our interests."

Free Twitter access is available only when the subscriber sets the APN to 'www' in the internet data settings on the phone. The offer is not available for BlackBerry users.

Vodafone's spokesperson, however, was unavailable to elaborate on the offer and its possible benefits.

This is the second such alliance by Twitter with a telecom operator in India, this year. A similar initiative was taken by Reliance in March, when it offered three months' free Twitter access to its GSM customers. It was called the 'Reliance Twitter Access Pack'.

Vodafone India is also the first operator in India to bring the Twitter for Android app to the market.

Vodafone India is a member of the Vodafone Group. It commenced its India operations in 1994. The company serves more than 150 million customers across India and offers several services in both 2G and 3G networks. The telecom brand has also won several awards. The company's Facebook page has more than a million fans.