Techonomix

Search giant Google has started rolling out
free SMS for its free email service Gmail
and paid email service Google Apps
customers in India.
PUNE: Search giant Google has started
rolling out free SMS for its free email
service Gmail and paid email service Google
Apps customers in India. The service allows
users to send SMSes to mobile phones
from chat windows. Users have to add
mobile numbers of their contacts in the
email address book and they are set.
The service starts with 50 SMS credits for
each user, every sent SMS costing one
credit. Every reply received adds on 5
credits subject to the maximum level being
50 SMS at any given time. There is no
official statement from Google on the
launch of this service, however the service
has gone live this evening in the chat
windows of many users.
Google is rolling out the service in
partnership with cellular operators, which
means they would share revenue with
Google out of SMSes users on their
network send. It specifies a way to buy
more SMS credits.
"You can always send an SMS to your own
phone, and then reply to that message
multiple times. Every time you send a reply
message, your SMS credit is increased by
five. Effectively, you're buying more
messages by paying your phone company
for these outgoing messages," it writes on
its chat help portal.
The service currently supports eight cellular
operators including Aircel, Idea, Loop
Mobile, MTS, Reliance, Tata DoCoMo, Tata
Indicom and some circles of Vodafone.
BSNL, MTNL and Airtel are not supported
yet.
The SMSes sent from Gmail chat are
delivered to mobile phones while replies
from the mobile phone come into the chat
window. For the mobile phone user, the
reply is charged at local SMS rate as per
her/his normal billing plan.
If no replies are received to any of the 50
SMSs sent and the credit balance come
down to zero, Google says, "...it will
increase back up to one 24 hours later. So,
you won't ever be locked out of the
system."