Twitter has announced a partnership with India's Bharti Airtel to provide full SMS access to the microblogging site's services.
The companies have signed a four-week exclusive agreement, whereby Bharti's subscribers can send SMS tweets at standard rates and receive tweets for free.
Twitter CEO Biz Stone said the company selected Bharti because it was the country's largest operator, with over 110 million subscribers.
“We worked quickly to establish full SMS service in India with the largest operator because organic growth in the region has been unusually strong,” Stone said.
Twitter discontinued its outbound SMS service for most of the world in August last year, citing the cost of footing the bill for sending multiple messages internationally.
Twitter has since brought back full SMS service to India, New Zealand, the US, Canada and the UK, Stone said.
While the financial terms of these deals have not been disclosed, they could be indicative of the company's planned business model.
The $1 billion valued company has yet to officially settle on a revenue-generating plan. While Twitter opened the door for the introduction of advertising last month, it has been long been reluctant to resort to traditional banner advertising.