Players offering free SMS within the country have mushroomed in the last couple of years. But Hyderabad-based SMSCountry’s 160by2.com is already leaping forward a step ahead of such players. The firm is now offering mobile subscribers a service to send free SMS across the globe.

The service in the initial phase will cover countries such as  UAE, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Malaysia and Philippines. And the service will be available over the internet medium on handsets supporting Symbian and Java operating systems.

160by2.com claims that it has already witnessed 117,760 downloads for the application within a month of its launch.

The application also allows users to use the inbox/sent messages folders at no additional cost. Moreover users can also save their phone book on 160by2.com as a back-up measure.

“Our innovative mobile application makes sending SMS hassle free. Once the application is downloaded on the mobile with internet connectivity, it enables the user to send free messages from this icon and need not log onto 160by2.com each time. We will also be launching upgraded versions of the application from time to time,” says SMSCountry CEO, Satyakalyan Yerramsetti.

Later on the company plans to extend these services to the rest of the Middle-East and MENA nations including Bahrain, Yemen, Qatar and Oman.