Who’s that Tweeting in Zain’s Ear?

Twitter could be in negotiations to bring outbound SMS back to the world outside of U.S., Canada and the UK in a deal with Zain. ArabCrunch reports…

Kuwait based Zain the 3rd largest mobile operator in the world with a commercial presence in 24 countries, has confirmed to ArabCrunch that they are in talks with Twitter for SMS notifications deal across their branches in the region. More sources has also told ArabCrunch that Twitter is in trying to strike 2 ways SMS deals with more operators in the region.

Zain operates in 24 Arab and African countries with a workforce of over 15,000 providing a comprehensive range of mobile voice and data services to over 69.5 million. It operates in the following countries: Bahrain, Burkina Faso, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Iraq, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Malawi, Madagascar, Niger, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. In Lebanon, the company manages the network on behalf of the government operating as mtc-touch. In Morocco, Zain in a joint venture owns 31% of Wana Telecom.

While details remain unclear, the return of Twitter to the African market would be huge.