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To: Eric L who wrote (18496)	2/25/2002 1:52:15 PM
From: Eric L	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 34857

re: Cingular Cross Technology Texting >> Cingular To Let Text Messages Roam Ben Charny CNET News.com February 24, 2002 Cingular Wireless plans to announce Monday that subscribers can now send text messages to cell phones supported by other wireless carriers' networks. The company plans to launch the service in March for subscribers across the nation, said Kris Rinne, Cingular vice president of product development and technology. Some of the network is already up and running, she added. Text messages sent over wireless networks to cell phones are similar to e-mail, but are generally limited to 150 characters and can't support attachments. A wireless subscriber can receive a text message for free, but it costs between 4 cents and 10 cents to send a message. Text messaging is just one of many ways in which wireless carriers are looking to find new sources of revenue, primarily to offset the cost of building new cell phone networks--projects that have run into the billions of dollars. AT&T was the first carrier to let subscribers send messages to other carriers' customers. Cingular customers could reply to a sent message, but they couldn't initiate a chat on their own with an AT&T subscriber. This will change in March, when Cingular customers will be able to send wireless notes and thoughts to nearly "98 percent" of all the nation's cell phones, Rinne said. The United States still lags behind Europe in the popularity of text messaging, according to the latest statistics. Between 300 million and 350 million text messages are sent every month in the United States between cell phones, according to Colin Montgomery, president of InphoMatch, a company that makes equipment to help carriers offer wireless messaging services. By comparison, there are an estimated 30 billion messages exchanged every month in Europe. Carriers wouldn't confirm these estimates. Cingular said it has experienced a 450 percent increase in message traffic since January. AT&T spokesman Ritch Blasi said the carrier has seen message traffic double since it let subscribers send messages to most other U.S. carriers. "That whole thing with SMS (Short Messaging Service) in Europe didn't happen overnight," said Keith Waryas, a wireless analyst with IDC. "There are still a lot of issues to get around, like typing messages on that tiny keyboard." << - Eric -