Hotmail co-founder launches free SMS app JaxtrSMS

Jaxtr, set up by Hotmail co-founder Sabeer Bhatia and Yogesh Patel, today announced the launch of JaxtrSMS, an open texting application which allows users to send free SMSes across the world.

"JaxtrSMS is completely unique in terms that a mobile user can send a text SMS to any mobile phone in the world without requiring the receiver to have the JaxtrSMS application installed on their phone," the company said in a statement.

This "open" facet of JaxtrSMS distinguishes it from other free mobile messaging applications where messages can only be sent within a closed network to people who also have the same app installed, the company claimed.

Jaxtr Inc CEO and Co-Founder Sabeer Bhatia said, "Now, mobile users can leverage our free and open application to send messages to their contacts anywhere across the world without having to pay anything.

"The fact that our application has been downloaded by users across 197 countries in just a few weeks since our soft launch amply reflects our belief that JaxtrSMS will prove to be immensely useful to mobile users across the world," he added.

Jaxtr Inc President and Co-Founder Yogesh Patel said that JaxtrSMS was completely developed in India.