Logica unveils SMS service for landlines

SMS company Logica has launched a text service that will enable text messages to be sent to fixed-line telephones and is aiming to attract advertisers to the new service.

Unveiled this week at an industry event in Singapore, the Fixed Line Short Message Service Centre is billed as the “first completely inter-operable SMS technology”. This means that any mobile phone should be able to send a text message to any fixed-line phone – and vice versa.

Logica claims it will be able to create an automated voice option for home phones that do not feature an LCD display. Text messages would automatically detect such phones and be read out by a computerised voice when the phone is answered.

Logica’s move, which would also create new revenue opportunities for fixed-line operators, builds on an initiative by Amstrad’s e-mailer phone, which has tried to forge close ties with advertisers including Domino’s Pizza.

A Logica spokesman stresses that all home-targeted SMS ads will work on a strictly opt-in basis and will be designed so as not to result in phones ringing in the middle of the night.

The company will not reveal any clients for the messaging service, but claims to be in talks with two interested parties.

Recommended

Mel Gibson ain’t Scottish cobber

Marketing Week

With reference to Hilary Rogers’ letter (MW June 6), I too believe there to be a great deal of truth in the comments that a Scottish accent is very soothing to the ear and creates an atmosphere of trust and attention. Just look at the recent growth in call centre business in Scotland however, to […]

Ozzy’s not so paranoid with $20m a series

Marketing Week

OK, so we’ve got the World Cup, we’ve had the Golden Jubilee, but there is another special family, all but overshadowed by football and royal fever – the Osbournes. No, I don’t mean your old headmaster’s family – I mean Ozzy, the old-time rock legend, not-so-reformed alcoholic and lead singer of Black Sabbath. A documentary […]

DTI hires Miles Calcraft and PHD for small business drive

Marketing Week

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has appointed Miles Calcraft Briginshaw Duffy and PHD to handle the advertising and media for its &£2m campaign to demonstrate the Government’s support for small businesses. The two agencies acted together in a four-way pitch overseen by COI Communications. Miles Calcraft Briginshaw Duffy and PHD pitched against Fallon/MediaVest, […]