Recently we let you know about our launch in Singapore and Kuwait. Starting today, we have got the users in all these three countries connected. This means that Indian users can send SMS to Kuwait and Singapore, Singaporean users can send SMS to India and Kuwait and Kuwaiti users can do so to their friends in India and Singapore.

So how do you go about this. I hope the following pointers will help you in getting started:

The rule is very simple. For sending sms within your country just type in mobile number, for sending sms to friends out of country enter mobile number prefixed with country code.

INDIAN USERS

Sending SMS to India : Enter the 10 digit mobile number in the Mobile number field. (eg: 9012345678)

Sending SMS to Kuwait : Enter the 8 digit mobile number prefixed with country code 965 (eg: 96561234567)

Sending SMS to Singapore : Enter the 8 digit mobile number prefixed with the country code 65 (eg: 6591234567)

SINGAPOREAN USERS

Sending SMS to India : Enter the 10 digit mobile number prefixed with country code 91 (eg: 919012345678)

Sending SMS to Kuwait : Enter the 8 digit mobile number prefixed with country code 965 (eg: 96561234567)

Sending SMS to Singapore : Enter the 8 digit mobile number only (eg : 91234567)

KUWAITI USERS

Sending SMS to India : Enter the 10 digit mobile number prefixed with country code 91 (eg: 919012345678)

Sending SMS to Kuwait : Enter the 8 digit mobile number only (eg: 61234567)

Sending SMS to Singapore : Enter the 8 digit mobile number prefixed with the country code 65 (eg: 6591234567)

Time to change the title of this blog to include Kuwait and Singapore

That one thing we had been fervently working on, and what you had always been asking for is now here! 160by2 has taken its first steps towards becoming an international website! Starting 26th February - the Liberation Day of Kuwait, 160by2 opened its registrations to Kuwaiti users. That also means that our existing users from India will be able to send SMS to their friends in Kuwait and vice versa.

So, here are some pointers to help you in getting started in sending international SMS with 160by2 :

How do Indian users send SMS to friends in India?
That’s not changing. Continue the same way you have been sending SMSes. If your friend’s number is 90123XXXXX, simply enter 90123XXXXX in the ‘Mobile Number‘ field and proceed.

How do Indian users send SMS to friends in Kuwait?
Kuwaiti mobile numbers are 8 character long. You will have to prefix the country code of Kuwait (965) in front of the mobile number to send the SMS. If your Kuwaiti friend’s number is 9123XXXX, then you need to enter 9659123XXXX in the ‘Mobile Number‘ field.

How do Kuwaiti users send SMS to friends in Kuwait?
For users registered with a Kuwaiti number, sending SMS to friends inside Kuwait is simple. Simply enter the 8 digit mobile phone number to proceed. If your friend’s number is 9123XXXX, simply enter this in the ‘Mobile Number‘ field.

How do Kuwaiti users send SMS to friends in India?
Users registered with a Kuwaiti mobile number, you will have to add the India country code (91) before the mobile phone number. If your friend in India has the mobile number 91234XXXXX, then enter 9191234XXXXX in the ‘Mobile Number‘ field.

Hope this answers your queries. Our venturing into Kuwait is the first step towards a long journey ahead. Keep checking back as we add more countries in the months ahead. Till then enjoy Free SMSing!

Great news from the 160by2 team here at Hyderabad. We are spreading our wings further and are now launching our free SMS service in Singapore! Here on, our users in Singapore users can send SMS inside Singapore and also to their friends in India. But those Indian users who want to send SMS to their friends in Singapore shall have to wait for some more time. We have not got there yet.

Here are a few things you should know to get started:

How do Singapore users send SMS to friends in Singapore?
Simply enter the 8 digit mobile number on the number field, enter your text message and SEND! Eg: If your Singapore friend’s mobile number is 81234567, simply enter this number on the number field.

How do Singapore users send SMS to friends in India?
Prefix the India country code (91) with the 10 digit mobile number on the mobile number field. Everything else remains the same. Eg: If your Indian friend’s mobile number is 9123456789, enter 919123456789 in the Mobile number field to send the message to your Indian friend.

Enjoy Free SMS forever!

The laurels just keep coming. After being awarded the Website of year 2008 (ISP/Telecom), and our parent company included by Deloitte in their 2008 list of the 50 fastest growing tech companies in India and 500 fastest growing tech companies in Asia Pacific, we have now been recognized as the most used PC-to-Mobile Text Messaging service in India by Juxt Consult, India’s leading Online research company.

According to this recent report released by Juxt Consult, 21% of their respondents used 160by2.com, which is the highest among the websites operating in this domain.

Users like you have made 160by2 what it is today, and it is a moment of gratitude and reassurance to see ourselves being recognized as the most used Internet SMS portal.

The most awaited event of the year is here. IPL 2009 kicks off in South Africa in a few hours from now. As die hard lovers of the game ourselves, we are launching an IPL section for the cricket lovers on 160by2. Check the IPL schedule, browse through the various facts and trivia of the different IPL teams, have fun answering polls, check out the players to watch out in the different teams all in the new IPL section!

And that’s not it. Discuss the match as it happens on the IPL blog. Discuss, debate and support your team at the IPL blog. This is surely a place for you to show where your loyalties lie, isn’t it!! Click below on your team page to read all that you needed to know!

Deccan Chargers

Mumbai Indians

Delhi Daredevils

Kings XI Punjab

Rajasthan Royals

Royal Challengers Bangalore

Kolkata Knight Riders

Chennai Super Kings

Close on the heels of setting our footprints outside India in Kuwait comes another exciting landmark from our 160by2 team. You can now send SMSes in not only English, but launching as we are talking, in Arabic as well! It is said that necessity is the mother of invention, and when we decided to get global, we realized that this milestone comes with the challenge to incorporate the ability to send SMS in multiple languages, and so we are here - launching multi-language SMS on WAP. Here are a few screenshots:

PS : We believe, from our research, that this is the first ever multi-language supported SMS portal on WAP. If you believe this is wrong, kindly let us know.

Elections 2009 is round the corner and it is a moment to stop and think about who is going to rule us through the next five years. The past five years have been very eventful, be it the highs of economic growth, Chandrayaan or the lows of terror attacks and regional and communal politics.

We have lauded and criticized our leaders thus far. So, here is an occasion for us to exercise the ultimate right of choosing the leader who shall serve you. I hope our voting choices are not prejudiced by our religion, caste, or regional preferences. Let us vote for the leader who we think would get our country to greater heights. Let’s make our vote count.

On this occasion, 160by2 is launching the ‘My Vote Counts‘ campaign to emphasize the importance of exercising your vote. Take a moment to visit the page here to browse through the voter turnout percentages, past Prime Ministers, lots of facts and trivia surrounding this election. Also watch Aamir Khan’s message on why your vote counts.

Our vote is too precious an entity to waste. Let’s utilize it for the betterment of our country.

There are two exciting updates from our WAP site for our users on mobile Internet. We hope this will make you take the contacts facility at our site to the next level.

The first one is the new Who’s Online feature. Want to casually ‘SMS chat’ with your friend but don’t want to disturb someone busy? Here’s the Who’s online feature that lets you know who among your friends in the Contacts list are online on 160by2 and who is not. Definitely THE feature for those of you who are 160by2-addicted!!

The second one is the User profile page, which lets you display your profile to your contacts or to all other 160by2 users. Now, you no longer have to know a person’s mobile number before adding him on contact. Moving forward, we will also let you search for profiles and add contacts whose number you might not have. However, be assured that your privacy shall not be affected, since you get to choose whether to make your profile information public and who gets to see and who does not!

Hi All

In today’s world of rush, one regularly questions the romanticism left in people. But, as we look back at the Pond’s Valentine’s campaign run on 160by2, we are left completely amazed! Probably the charm of old world romance and letters is being manifested in SMS nowadays J Such beautiful messages visualized, constructed and sent was love and mushiness at its best and leaves one wonderstruck that love and affection can be spoken of in so many ways.

The special “Pond’s Love” page, paying tribute to romance and love, was created to facilitate SMS traffic leading to Valentine’s Day. While we expected it to be a success, the response has been nothing short of phenomenal, with lakhs of messages being sent from this page alone. The “Wish Ur Valentine” was also a great success where we noticed loads of new romantics visiting, registering and sending messages to their loved ones.

As promised, the lucky 200 winners of the Pond’s contest have been selected (earlier we planned for only 150 winners, but seeing the amazing participation, Pond’s increased the number to 200 – Three Cheers to Pond’s) and Pond’s Gifts are on their way to their homes. We are reaching out to the winners via SMS / Emails and if you receive any such SMS / Email, please respond back immediately with your full postal address. Click here to see the list of winners.

Our constant endeavour to enhance communication between two individuals is well known to all you people and this Pond’s valentines Contest is a small part of the effort. Hope you have enjoyed being part of this and looking forward to offer more such campaigns and contests.

160by2 service has now more than 3 million registered users! This is a really great milestone achieved in less than 18 months. When we launched 160by2, it seemed so tough to forecast user growth. We have surpassed most of our forecasts!

We expected it to succeed, and that hunger for success drove us hard. But we are really overwhelmed by the feedback and support provided by our 3 million strong user community. This has driven us harder, to launch new features, to improve the back-end and to deliver a better experience.

Today, with action packed 18 months behind us, we are proud of our users who use our services, and we are equally proud of our advertisers who have believed in us, our users, and the power of this advertising media.

The results are out for 2008 Website of the year survey. Our users have voted overwhelmingly to make us the best and the most popular website in India in telecom and isp sector.

As dust settles down on 2008, we look at 2009 with renewed enthusiasm and vigour. We pledge to our users and advertisers that we will strive harder to deliver still more this year.
All of us at 160by2 wish you and your families a peaceful and prosperous 2009.