RPG Cellular and a few other cellular service companies are planning to provide their subscribers voice-based e-mail facility on their cellular phones.
Very few cellular service companies in the country provide this facility without the aid of a modem. Such messages have to be read by scrolling through the hand set screen.
However, quite a few service providers have achieved e-mail and fax compatibility with the aid of a modem.
"We are confident of commercially launching the text-based e-mail on a cell phone service by March, 1999. It is our long-term objective to enable our subscribers to receive voice-based e-mail messages as well,'' RPG Cellular's president Dilip R Mehta said.
E-mail on a cell phone service will bring together two powerful mediums _ the Internet and the cell phone _ for the first time in the country.
Bangalore-based start-up company, Gray Cell, is developing the technology to provide the interface between the Internet and cellular service.
"RPG Cellular has signed an MoU with Gray Cell to jointly work towards launching the e-mail on a cell phone service," Mehta said.
Though the exact technical details are not yet clear, RPG's service could work like this. Each cell phone will have an e-mail address.
A person anywhere in the world can send his message to this address. The message will then reach RPG's server. From there it will be transmitted to the user's cell phone.
"The user would then have the option of reading the entire message by scrolling through his cell phone screen or read the subject of the message alone,'' Mehta said.
The `alert' option, where the user gets to read only the subject of the e-mail message and the sender's name will be useful when the user is busy.
However, the small screen of the cell phone will be a handicap when it comes to receiving lengthy e-mail messages. Gray Cell and RPG Cellular are planning to overcome this drawback.
In the second phase of its e-mail on a cell phone service project, RPG Cellular plans to enable its users to receive `voice files' as e-mail attachments.
The voice files will be played back to the user through his handset. This will enable users to take voice messages from practically anywhere in the world for very little extra cost.
"We will have to wait for e-mail penetration in the country to improve before the e-mail on a cell phone service becomes popular," RPG Cellular's president Dilip R Mehta said.
