“Do you like Tweet updates via SMS?”

Twitter is a free social networking and micro blogging service that allows users to keep in touch by sending and reading other users’ updates (otherwise known as tweets), in text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length.

We posted previously about the Twitter SMS update service being turned off for Australians, due to rising telecommunication costs.

That loss of service was immediately felt by Jeff Bonnes and Delia Timms, who use Twitter to keep in touch with their family and friends in Australia and overseas - and prevously by using Twitter’s free SMS service.

New SMS update service

Rather than sit around complaining though, they jumped straight to action and created their own Twitter SMS service, www.twitsms.com.au

I asked Delia to let me know a little more about their fantastic new service…

What inspired you to launch this service?

We understood personally how important it was for some Twitter fans to keep getting their tweets by SMS - even if they had to pay a very small fee for it.

We use Twitter to keep in touch with friends and family - particularly Jeff who is American and likes staying in contact with his friends overseas.  Since using Twitter, Jeff has felt so much more connected with them.  It seemed a shame to lose this connection.

We felt Twitter fans should at least have the choice to get their SMS, rather than just being cut-off by Twitter altogether.  In Australia we already pay for our SMS, so it is not unusual for us to pay to get our Tweets too.

Twitter is also a handy and powerful business tool for communicating and getting immediate feedback from customers. It is also an efficient way to keep our customers updated as we are responding to requests and developing new features quickly. So we’ve learnt that Twitter is a fun new way to stay in touch for business too!

How did you set this new service up so fast?

Experience and enthusiasm. We have built a few other successful internet businesses and have gained valuable experience over the past few years. Jeff was able to apply learnings from previous projects to speed up the coding for www.twitsms.com.au. One of our other businesses does messaging and SMS already, so we were one step ahead. We were also able to use hardware and hosting from our other internet operations.

How much interest has the site received?

We have been happily surprised by the immediate interest from Twitter fans. We knew there was a solid Twitter community and we’ve found they are more annoyed about Twitter shutting their service down, than having to pay a few cents to get their SMSs.

Another surprising aspect for us has been the global interest. After only 4 days live, we had been contacted from customers not only in Australia, but also UK, Belgium, Norway, Sweden, Turkey, Israel, Russia and France.

“So, what’s the low down?”

Register for free with your Twitter account details, set up your account preferences (who you want to receive updates from), then just purchase SMS credit packs and away you go.

You even get to try before you buy. That’s confidence in their product! Check it out.

More information

Check out the FAQs page on twitsms, or find Delia and Jeff on Twitter: twitter.com/twitsmsco

Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/f_coverz

Be wary of your mobile spend

The Australian Mobile Telecommunications Authority (AMTA) has issued a warning to consumers about premium mobile phone & SMS services.

Most premium services offer entertainment, news, games, competitions as well as other content such as ringtones, wallpapers and information services. They usually cost more than standard SMS messages and are often featured in magazine advertisements, on television and on the internet.

AMTA Chief Executive Officer, Chris Althaus, warns it is crucial that consumers are fully aware of what they are signing up to; and that people should ensure that they check the fine print of any offer before signing up.

Some questions Chris advises you should always ask:

• How do you opt out or cancel the subscription?
• Is it a one-off cost or are you signing up to the ongoing cost of a subscription service?
• If it is a subscription service, is there a minimum term?
• How does the pricing work?
• Are you paying to receive calls and messages as well as send them?
• What is the total cost of the service?

More info:
AMTA: Consumer alert
AMTA: Premium content sending mixed messages

Other charges and billing problems

Of course, it’s not just these types of unexpected charges that are making the news these days.

We also have children accidentally running up exorbitant bills; call charges for above the cap limits - and the iPhone dramas of 300 page bills, $4,954 bills; unexpected data charges for what you thought was “free” or capped net surfing - let alone the roaming charges fiasco. You only need to see how many videos are on YouTube about it.

The AMTA and ACMA websites have heaps of information to help you control your spending, how to avoid “surprises” and other helpful tips.

Of course, keeping an eye on your own bills online is always a very handy tip for your mobile phone spend.

Aside of course from avoiding late night tv ads