Australian operator Telstra launches SMS service for landline phones

Telstra has launched Australia's first text message service for home telephones, making SMS accessible to more than 10 million households in the country. Home phone users with compatible services can read and send text messages on their landlines using specially designed telephones in the same way they do with mobile phones.

Telstra's Head of Consumer Marketing, Jenny Young, said the new home text messaging service would provide an important bridge between text savvy mobile phone users and the home phone market: "Text messaging is already extraordinarily popular in Australia with more than 100 million SMS sent by Telstra customers each month," she said. "We anticipate that having text messaging available on the home phone will trigger a new wave of text messaging popularity, particularly among mums, dads and grandparents. Text messaging on home phones is set to help families stay in touch. For example, teenagers who are out and about can now text home to let their parents know where they are, or that they need a lift home.

Sending text messages from a home phone is simple. Telstra customers with a compatible service and an SMS-enabled home phone use a keypad to send text messages just as they would to send text on a mobile phone. To send text messages to a home phone, users simply type the message, key in the full 10-digit fixed phone number including the area code and press send.

Reading a text message on one of the new telephones is identical to reading a text message on a mobile phone. Even homes without a new SMS-enabled phone can receive SMS using Telstra's Talking Text" service that was launched in 2004 and converts text messages into speech that is relayed to the person answering the home phone.

SMS-enabled phones are priced from AU$129.95 (US$100) from Telstra Shops. Telstra home phone customers pay no additional monthly fee for access to the text messaging service and SMS cost AU$0.25 (US$0.20) each to send from the home phone.

To help first-time-texters, Telstra has launched an online SMS dictionary designed to assist in deciphering text message abbreviations.