Text messaging coming to a landline near you

A revolutionary new text messaging service for home phones could soon come to New Zealand.

In the wake of the introduction of the new technology in Australia, telecommunications giant Telecom is looking at what demand there is for offering a similar service to its New Zealand customers.

The new technology allows customers to send and receive text messages through their fixed-line home phones - a move seen as providing an important bridge between text-savvy mobile phone users and the home phone market.

While there are no firm details on the cost of the service, in Australia, Telstra customers must first buy an SMS-enabled phone, which costs around $130. Home phone customers pay no additional monthly fee for access to the text messaging service, and each SMS costs 25c to send from the home phone. Telstra is also looking to include pxt messaging in the service.

New Zealanders currently send more than four million text messages a day. Telecom spokesman Thomas Clancy said the technology would not be difficult to introduce into New Zealand because all it required was having an SMS-enabled phone. He expected it would cut down phone bill costs because people would rather send text messages than make calls. All this will be looked at when Telecom investigates the proposal. The technology, if introduced, is expected to benefit New Zealand's deaf community.

Deaf Association spokeswoman Elaine Sautia said the service would attract a "whole new generation of texters", especially among the elderly, many of whom do not own a mobile.


Texting in New Zealand

Text messaging became available in New Zealand in 1994. It took off in 2000 when a large-scale marketing campaign raised awareness of the service to Vodafone customers.

Average text messages a day (Vodafone customers):
Nov 1999: fewer than 60,000
Dec 2000: more than 600,000
Dec 2001: more than 1 million
Dec 2002: more than 1.3 million
Dec 2003: more than 2.4 million

- HERALD ON SUNDAY