Twitter is returning to its roots with the acquisition of text-messaging company Cloudhopper, which will allow more users, especially those in developing countries without web-enabled smartphones, to begin tweeting.

Earlier this month at the Chirp developers conference, Twitter CEO Evan Williams said there was “untapped potential” with Twitter text-message usage and that “mobile is clearly where the majority of usage will happen”.

Twitter itself was inspired by SMS—its 140 character limit was designed specifically to allow for any tweet to be read in its entirety whether using a rudimentary mobile phone, or a more sophisticated smartphone.

Over the last eight months Twitter has been working with Cloudhopper to become one of the highest volume SMS programmes in the world, processing close to a billion SMS tweets per month, a number that will only grow as developing countries gain access to mobile phones. The majority of Twitter users are already outside of the United States.

Cloudhopper will allow Twitter to connect its service directly with mobile carriers around the world, in so that users do not have to pay extra to send or receive text message tweets. In the past, Twitter has has had to disable text messaging in certain countries because of high fees.

Kevin Thau, who heads Mobile products and partnerships at Twitter, blogged: “To help us further grow and scale our SMS service, we are happy to announce the acquisition of Cloudhopper, a messaging infrastructure company that enables Twitter to connect directly to mobile carrier networks in countries all over the planet. Please join us in welcoming both Joe and Kristin to Twitter’s mobile team.”