Personal communications services operators Western Wireless and Aerial Communications Inc. each launched a service last week that will allow subscribers to receive e-mail messages using their PCS phones.
Western Wireless customers using the company’s @Stream e-mail service can have messages sent directly to the phone’s dedicated e-mail address or have messages forwarded from an existing home or office e-mail address. Messages are converted to the VoiceStream phone as text messages, said the company.
The VoiceStream phone supports messages of up to 160 characters, but longer messages can be broken up into multiple messages, said Western Wireless. Features of the @Stream service include message compression, e-mail forwarding and delivery control, which allows subscribers to control which e-mail messages are sent to the phone, limit the number of messages received, delete duplicate messages and schedule message delivery.
The service is priced at $8 per month.
Aerial’s offering
Aerial’s service, called Mobile Office Service, allows customers to send and receive faxes and e-mails, access e-mail, transfer and retrieve data files and connect to online networks. To use the service, customers must have an Aerial PCS phone and service, an IBM compatible laptop computer and either the L.M. Ericsson or Nokia Corp. Mobile Office Package, said Aerial.
The Nokia equipment sells for $300 and the Ericsson equipment for $340.
The monthly fee for Mobile Office basic service is $10 per month plus 28 cents per minute for customers who use more than 83 minutes. Mobile Office advanced is priced at $20 per month plus 16 cents per minute.
