AT&T makes calling to Japan free in March, tech companies donate resources to help the Japanese

UPDATED: Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint are all doing their part now, by offering free calls and text messages to Japan for the month of March as well.

AT&T has been generous enough to open its network for calls and texts to Japan free of charge for the whole month of March, which can be a huge cost-saver for anybody in the US with friends and relatives in Japan.

Google, Apple, Twitter and Microsoft, among others, are all donating fundraising efforts for the victims of the devastating earthquake in Japan.

Google has started a few initiatives in the first hours after the tsunami, with its Japan Crisis Response page, and also bringing its People Finder service front and center. The search giant also donated $250 000 to relief agencies.

Twitter has set up a pool of resources for information about the developments: "In it you can find which hashtags people are using to communicate about the earthquake, learn about a new section of our mobile website (available for users in Japan) that has the latest information about the earthquake, and discover useful message boards and other sites. We'll be updating this blog post as we discover more tools and useful information.", said Twitter's Carolyn Penner.

Apple used its millions of iTunes accounts to set up a donation service, with the proceeds going directly to the Red Cross, for the disaster relief efforts. Microsoft, in its turn, offered a $1 for every retweet, which @bing was to give to the Japanese quake victims. The $100 000 goal of that effort has been met.

source: PCMag & Engadget