Some things are better read than said

1st October 2000, official launch date of the Vodafone Short Message Service (SMS).

Vodafone’s customers can utilise another feature of their GSM mobile phone – the Short Message Service (SMS) as from Sunday 1st October 2000. This is a fast, easy and cost-effective means of sending text messages and images between mobile phones. This was announced today by Managing Director of VodafoneMalta Limited, Mr. Joe Grioli.

“SMS was available to customers in July 1997 when Vodafone launched GSM service as it is a standard feature of GSM technology. However, because of regulatory interpretation of Skytel paging service licence, regulatory restrictions have been removed, we are pleased to offer this important service to Vodafone Malta customers,” said Mr. Grioli.

Through the SMS service, Vodafone customers will now be able to communicate easily even in situations where it is impractical to talk on the phone. These include receiving messages during meetings when privacy is of essential importance as well as noisy or crowded places of entertainment, to give just two examples. SMS also provides an ideal way of sending imaginative personalised messages, such as, “U R GR8 2 NITE” or “WOT R U DOING?” and “WER R U?”.

All Vodafone Malta customers can utilise this function by accessing their messages menu and select the write message option. The letters on the phone keypad form the spelling to compose a new message which can be up to 160 characters long. Upon completion, the send message option delivers the text message to intended destination within seconds. The Vodafone Network will continue trying to send the message for up to 1 day if the recipient phone is switched off.

The mobile phone will alert the user and an envelope symbol will appear on the screen when a new text message is received. The new message can be read straight away from the phone’s display screen.

To enable the SMS function, etalk customers must dial 0963 6363 from their mobile phone to activate the SMS feature prior to sending their first text message. This will open a time window of one week and the etalk account will be debited by Lm1. During this week, an unlimited amount of SMS messages can be sent.

Contract customers will receive the SMS service free of charge during the month of October 2000. Subsequently, they will incur a nominal fee of 5 cents, including VAT, for each outgoing message. The bill received at the end of the month will show the number of messages sent during that particular billing period. Both contract and etalk customers benefit from free receiving of SMS.

The SMS feature can also be utilised in any country that has a roaming agreement with Vodafone Malta. The cost of each message will be according to the tariffs of the respective service provider.

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