Twitter Finds Now It Has The Leverage On Mobile Operators.

"But as the [Twitter] service has gone mainstream, suddenly it behooves Vodafone to strike a deal with Twitter, make the [SMS] costs workable, and be able to offer the service to its customers. The mobile industry has long engaged in these stupid battles over who 'owns' the customer. Typically, the operator's take has been that they own the pipe, so they own the customer. But maybe they're finally figuring out that without any compelling services to travel through it, the pipe's not such a big deal."