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Twitter allows emerging market users with entry-level phones to call for trend updates

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By Jennifer Faull, Deputy Editor

December 6, 2013 | 2 min read

Twitter has inked a deal with a Singapore-based startup which will allow users, namely those in emerging markets with entry-level phones, who don’t have internet access to call for updates on what is trending.

The deal with U2opia Mobile, a network which more than 11 million people use, will see users able to call a simple code to get a feed of the popular trending topics on Twitter. However, pictures, videos or other graphics will not be available.

"For a lot of end users in the emerging markets, it's going to be their first Twitter experience,” chief executive and co-founder of U2opia, Sumesh Menon, told Reuters.

He also explained that the Twitter feed will be localised according to the user: “So somebody in Paraguay would definitely get content that would be very very localised to that market vis a vis somebody sitting in Mumbai or Bangalore,” he said.

The company partners with telecom carriers such as Telenor, Vodafone and Bharti Airtel and has already forged similar deals with Facebook and Google.

The Twitter service is set to launch in the first quarter of next year.

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