Of course, when customers of Bell Mobility discovered this, they were outraged, mainly because the carrier wanted to charge 15 cents for what amounts to a standard text message. A company spokesperson defended the policy as of yesterday, but today, we’ve seen a reversal, and Bell Mobility has indicated that there will be no additional fees for Twitter messages.
Twitter updates users on their blog again today, writing, “Twitter and Bell have agreed that Bell customers on the company's text messaging bundles will be able to receive unlimited incoming Twitter SMS messages at no extra charge.” Meanwhile, The Vancouver Sun confirms the news with Bell Mobility, indicating that Twitter itself – more specifically the angry Tweets of Bell Mobility customers – lead to the change.
Twitter’s post on the issue doesn’t mention the whole mix-up, and the company has not responded to our request for comment. They did however acknowledge the issue in a tweet yesterday that read, “There's some confusion about Bell Mobility pricing of Twitter SMS. We've been investigating this and will clear it up to tomorrow.”