Little Smart messages may go nationwide
16/2/2004 15:16
Users of Little Smart service, a cordless phoning system, will be able to
send and receive short messages across the nation, as China's key
telecommunications operators will have their message service accessible to each
other's networks, today's Beijing Youth Daily reported.
Citing officials with
the Ministry of Information Industry, the report said the China's telecom
industry watchdog is stepping up the effort to have the four telecom operators,
China Telecom, China Mobile, China Unicom and China Netcom to open their short
message network to each other.
If the plan goes smooth, the interconnection
will be due at the end of March.
And from that time, Little Smart users of
China Telecom and China Netcom will be able to send and receive messages to and
from not only users of Little Smart users across the country but also those of
mobile phones.
Currently, messaging service on Little Smart phones is
confined to terminals of the same phone system. And only in some areas, are the
users able to enjoy cross-province messaging services.
Industry analysts
expected the final SMS nationwide connection will help boost the Little Smart
business in China and probably push the number of users over 60 million as SMS
has developed into a key sector of the telecom market.
Last year, China's SMS
market has more than tripled to 6.2 billion yuan (US$750 million) from 1.9
billion yuan of the previous year.
Jane Chen/ Shanghai Daily news
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