Micro-blogging firm Twitter says it’s close to signing a deal with O2 in the United Kingdom for the return of its mobile messaging service.

The company stopped forwarding SMS messages to customers because it claimed the service, which it ran through Manx Telecom, was too expensive to keep up.

Users send a text message to their Twitter account, and the company then forwards the message on to anybody who chooses to follow what somebody’s doing.

But it said the millions of messages forwarded by Manx Telecom cost too much, and suspended the service seven months ago.

The firm says it may be just weeks away from a deal with O2.