Twitter Goes Static

Microblogging site Twitter has decided to eliminate its mobile service in much of the world, blaming costs.

Unless you live in the US, Canada or India, say goodbye to getting quick Twitter blog updates on your mobile phone – although you will still be able to send them.

Blame it all on that old devil – cost. The expense of distributing updates to all the people on a person’s subscriber list had just become too high, especially as mobile operators had been unwilling to cut Twitter a deal, meaning its costs were as high as $1,000 per user outside the three countries where it will keep mobile service.

"When you send one message to Twitter and we send it to ten followers, you aren’t charged ten times, that’s because we’ve been footing the bill," the blog read.

"We took a risk hoping to bring more nations onboard and more mobile operators around to our way of thinking but we’ve arrived at a point where the responsible thing to do is slow our costs and take a different approach."

Twitter did point out that there are a number of mobile browser pages configured for Twitter updates for those who absolutely can’t live without knowing the latest update. And, for those with a BlackBerry, iPhone or Java-enabled set, Vnunet reports that Twitter apps are available.

Meanwhile the company will keep hammering away at mobile operators, and plans on adding local numbers for users to send text updates.