The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : And now, multilingual SMS

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jan 21, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

And now, multilingual SMS

Staff Reporter

GOING HI-TECH: Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy and T. Murali Krishna Reddy of Geneva Software at the launch in Hyderabad on Saturday. — Photo: Mohd. Yousuf

HYDERABAD: A multi-lingual SMS facility developed by the Bangalore-based Geneva Software Technologies, with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) as service provider, was inaugurated by Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy here on Saturday.

Dr. Reddy said that this meant breaking yet another communication barrier and heralding a revolution enabling farmers, traders and just about anyone, specially in the rural areas, to communicate fast. The facility is currently available for BSNL's GSM customers and is compatible with several handsets.

Second launch

The company's MD, T. Muralikrishna Reddy, said they were now equipped to handle SMS in 100 Indian languages including the 23 official languages. It was launched recently in Karnataka for Kannada-users he said, adding that Andhra Pradesh was the second launch. He said that before a launch, they wished to make illiterate or semi-literate rural subscribers aware of the facility.

On the company's plans, Mr. Reddy said that as of now they were primed to make GMS available across India and the Asia-Pacific region. Response to initial surveys were encouraging enough for them to go full steam with launch after launch in the near future, he said.

The Principal General Manager, BSNL, P.S.R. Krishna, said initially the multilingual intra-circle SMS would be charged at Re. 1. Very soon and depending upon the response, he said new plans would be chalked out to make multilingual SMS cheaper. However, he said the BSNL would shortly announce plans that made regular SMS in English as cheap as one paisa per message for a nominal monthly plan charge.

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Andhra Pradesh