STOCKHOLM, Sweden-Vodafone Group plc reported that its Swedish mobile customers will be able to send text messages to landline telephones, and the messages will automatically be delivered as voicemail messages. Vodafone said the offering will be identical to sending a text message to a mobile handset including pricing.
The landline telephone will ring similar to a regular incoming call, and once the call is answered, a computerized voice will read the message and specify the sender’s telephone number. If the recipient does not answer or if the line is busy when the text message is sent, the service will automatically attempt to re-send the message once an hour for up to eight hours before deleting the message.
Vodafone added the service will not be available at certain hours to prevent disturbing people and that anonymous messages will be automatically blocked.
“Hearing your messages read to you by a computerized voice is highly entertaining,” said Goran Mannerstrale, commercial director consumer at Vodafone Sweden. “I can’t think of a better way to send congratulatory [text messages], for example, than this.”
Mannerstrale added that the service will also be beneficial to visually impaired landline customers who are unable to read text messages on their wireless handsets.
