News: Telecom claiming mobile first

With an increase of 700 percent of mobile phone customers using Facebook since January, Telecom is making it easier for those who enjoy Facebook and Twitter.

In what the company is claiming as a New Zealand first, Telecom customers with Facebook accounts can now sign up to receive text notifications directly to their mobile phones from Facebook. Notifications include new messages, friends’ status updates or friend requests. Users can also update their status, search for phone numbers, or upload photos and videos from their mobile phone.

The Facebook notifications’ text is easy to set up online or simply by texting ‘f’ to 3223.

“Almost 2500 Telecom customers are using Facebook messaging each day since the launch of XT, showing just how much social networking is in demand with our customers” says Liz Wilson, Telecom Head of Mobile Marketing.

“With New Zealand’s Twitter penetration of six percent, the highest in the world, we are going to where customers are online and making it easier for them to connect.”

Those using Twitter on mobiles can receive friends’ tweets, tweet their own message, and send and receive direct messages via a text message. This service is easy to set up by texting to 8987, with the ability to choose which friends’ updates are received and to turn off updates for selected periods of time.

Receiving text updates from Facebook and Twitter is free. Standard text charges apply for sending text updates, be it tweets to Twitter or status updates to Facebook.