A
service for deaf and disabled people that simulates SMS texting, but
at a fraction of the cost, has been launched by a British company.
Chatterbox is available to anyone with a GPRS
phone
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Anyone with a GPRS mobile handset or PDA can download the Chatterbox
software and can then give free copies to up to 50 friends.
"It
works by emulating text messaging over the internet," Chatterbox
managing director, Ted Beagley, told BBC News Online.
"It
reduces the typical cost of a text message from 8p to 0.8p - and
some mobile contracts will even allow up to 3000 of these messages
to be sent free of charge every month."
The
system, MX Chat, works by converting a text message into data and
sending it via the internet to the Chatterbox server.
The
receiving phone then converts it back so that it appears as a text
message.
"It
looks almost the same as sending and receiving an SMS," said Mr
Beagley.
The
difference is that Chatterbox users can only exchange messages with
other Chatterbox users - a bit like sending and receiving instant
messages via Yahoo or MSN.
Ted Beagley and Ruth Gibson hope Chatterbox
will spread like a virus
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Mr
Beagley's partner in the Chatterbox venture, Ruth Gibson, is deaf
herself and was spending in excess of £100 every month texting her
sister.
"A
lot of equipment for disabled people looks very clinical, and the
great thing about this is that it uses an ordinary phone," she said.
A
year's licence for the Chatterbox software costs £99.
The
company hopes that when people start to use the system as 'friends'
they will become so hooked that they will buy their own copy and it
will spread like a virus.
Mr
Beagley says clubs and other organisations might consider running
their own Chatterbox servers so that they could maintain a private
network.
He
also plans to launch a PC version once he has acquired sufficient
server capacity.
