One tweet brought the free SMS services to Egypt

At the midnight of January 31, 2011, Soichiro Kanaya, a computer scientist in Osaka had been exchanging a number of expensive international SMS texts between his fellow Japanese researcher in Egypt. They have been conducting a project.

As there is no Internet in Egypt, the international SMS was the one of few remaining communications between family and co-workers in Japan, and the people in Egypt.

However, it cost 100 yen per message for 140 characters. They often ended up exchanging many SMSs. It could be very costly.

So, Kanaya-san decided to tweet and ask Masayoshi Son, the president of Softbank Mobile if he can waive the international SMS fee while the conflict lasts.

Son replied the tweet in this morning. 12 hours later, Softbank announced that the free SMS service and free international roaming service began.

It's like previous news of Softbank. A tweet changed the world again.

The detail of Softbank free international SMS and free international roaming of SMS in Egypt

Softbank Mobile will waive the charge of the following international SMS fee

From: January, 28, 2011 at 0:00am (Japan Standard Time)
Until: Febrary 28, 2011 at 23:59pm (Japan Standard Time)

From Japan:

From Softbank Mobile phones in Japan to any mobile phone of Etisalat Misr, MobiNil, and Vodafone Egypt

From Egypt

Any international roaming SMS messages originated from Softbank mobile phones located in Egypt using the networks of Etisalat Misr, MobiNil, and Vodafone Egypt.

If you are from Egypt, and your family members are in Cairo without the Internet, you can contact your love one without worrying about your SMS phone bills until the end of this month.