YAOUNDE, CAMEROON AFRICA. DECEMBER 2010 (news.cameroon-today.com)  -  A partnership deal between MTN Cameroon and Twitter will now permit MTN subscribers in the country to tweet using their cell phones.

Twitter and MTN Cameroon have recently inked an agreement which would permit users of MTN mobile services in Cameroon to send and get tweets on their cell phones by way of SMSes.

Users who wish to tweet from their cell phones can now do so by sending a text message that says “START” to 8711 on MTN’s network.

You would need to pay the same amount as you pay for sending SMSes for sending tweets and MTN does not charge you anything for receiving tweets

The details of the new plan were announced by Jessica Verrilli, Director of Strategic Initiatives & Corporate Development at Twitter during the Africa Media Leaders Forum in Yaoundé.

Jessica had in the recent past stated in her blog about such a deal and had also given a video interview containing pertinent details of the same. As the partnership has been confirmed now Cameroon will join its neighbor Nigeria as well as Madagascar both big players on the Web domain with the privilege of having a short code service access to Twitter which is one of the world’s most popular social networking sites.

The deal can prove to be a major landmark to Cameroon since the country is only moving up in terms of cell phone coverage and internet usage and most of the rural population is still relatively untouched by both technologies.

Why is the deal so crucial for Cameroon?

The Twitter-MTN partnership is important for the country owing to a multitude of reasons.

Twitter has already made its presence felt and is emerging to be a strong proponent of ICT usage and innovation though not exactly comparable to Facebook.

Unlike most of its counterparts Twitter has customized its service to such a model wherein it can facilitate the lowest level of cell phone handsets which means that you do not need to really own the best gizmo to really avail this facility.

This makes it all the more important for Cameroon where the mobile phone market is mostly governed by the low end segment. When you only need to pay what you would for a SMS for sending while receiving a tweet comes free of cost this would be the beginning of yet another communication channel that is totally different from the ones that are being used currently.

This could be the right prelude to more efficiency in communication, faster access to information, more channels for promotion and to top in all immense scope for innovation. This makes an important place in reducing the gap between people who have internet connectivity and those who do not.
.

Rural population in Cameroon for Twitter?

Twitter’s partnership with MTN Cameroon will definitely prove to be a dream come true option for users who are highly bothered about the cost aspect. The biggest hurdle that most mobile service providers are facing in the country is the exorbitant prices at which SMSes have to be dispatched.

The current rate for sending a text message is around 10 cents and that is for an out of network SMS. Even if you consider bulk SMS gateway rates, this kind of pricing can build up to a major chunk of a lean startup’s burn rate.

There is currently a lot of research ongoing to determine ways to convert Twitter into a no-cost group SMS platform. One of the first players to enter this territory is Agro-Hub, ActivSpaces social organizations that aims to create a user base by providing market information, latest news and long lasting agriculture advice by charging nothing. Till the very recent past they have been just dumping money into paying for SMSes.

Agro hub has been able to determine that the groups that they have been looking at which essentially involves small time farmers of the country cannot afford or is unwilling to shell out money to pay for an SMS service that has not proved its mettle which is why they are currently not charging for updates.

After farmers have been educated on as to how best they can use Agro-Hub:Informer on Twitter with their cell phones, Agro-Hub:Trader now gets its share of income from basic fees that are taken when the produce is finally sold to the end customer.

Farmers stand to gain from economies of scale by totally eradicating middlemen who pay them less than what their products are sold in the market for while customers get the same products at significantly lower prices.

This model is totally different from Google’s innovative SMS offer that was launched with great splendor only to turn out a disaster when the mobile service providers started levying a premium for the SMSes.

The last word:

A Twitter-MTN Cameroon partnership will now force everyone to come into action.

Twitter has been one of the first to secure an entry into a market that is growing at a very fast rate, while innovators secure a no-cost group SMS platform and MTN users get a golden opportunity to connect to each other and use up mobile space they could never have managed previously.

Meanwhile, the operator continues still has access to huge and ever increasing profits. Twitter’s foray into Cameroon increases the scope for vast innovation. Twitter and Facebook is all set to set their fingerprint on an area where Google failed due to various reasons.