Twitter UK users lose text service

Co-founder says they simply can't afford it anymore

14 August 2008 13:33 GMT / By Katie Scott

Twitter fans in the UK have now lost their 250 texts a week.

Twitter's co-founder Biz Stone emailed users and explained in a blog that the microblogging service simply can't afford to keep the text service going.

"Even with a limit of 250 messages received per week, it could cost Twitter about $1,000 per user, per year to send SMS outside of Canada, India, or the US", the message reads.

Stone said that the only way round this would be to make better billing arrangements with the UK's mobile phone operators.

"It pains us to take this measure. However, we need to avoid placing undue burden on our company and our service ... It makes more sense for us to establish fair billing arrangements with mobile operators than it does to pass these high fees on to our users."

The Guardian has garnered some responses from Twitter users and they range between annoyed to a shoulder shrug.

Twitter is now estimated to have 2.2 million users worldwide.

This latest move does not affect users in the US, Canada and India.

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Software, Online, Twitter, Blogging, Phones, Mobile phones, Websites