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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | ||
JULY 13th 2002, SYDNEY - Telstra and Yahoo! Australia & NZ have teamed up to bring the highly popular local Yahoo! Messenger service to Telstra Mobile customers from Wednesday 14 August. Telstra is the first carrier in Australia to launch Yahoo! Messenger for SMS, enabling users to access Yahoo! instant messages from Yahoo! Messenger on both their PCs and mobile phones. Yahoo! Messenger is an internet-based messaging application, which allows users to stay in touch online with friends and colleagues locally and anywhere in the world. Currently, Yahoo! Messenger has more than 830,000* regular users in Australia. Yahoo! Messenger for SMS extends that service to mobile phones, giving Telstra Mobile customers the ability to send and receive Yahoo! instant messages from Yahoo! Messenger on their mobile phones. It creates a seamless service between mobile and PC, ensuring customers can send and receive Yahoo! instant messages when they are at their PC, or out and about, on their Telstra Mobile phones. Telstra Mobile Group Managing Director, Mr. David Thodey, said, "The extension of the Yahoo! Messenger service to Telstra Mobile customers added a new level of fun and flexibility for mobile users. "Yahoo! Messenger for SMS gives our customers a new level of contactability and convenience, allowing them to stay up to date with the latest news with friends and family. It is the first fully integrated, popular internet based instant messaging service available to mobile phone users in Australia," Mr Thodey said. "Yahoo! Messenger for SMS makes it even easier to SMS colleagues, friends and family when you're at your desk," said Brian Boys, media producer, Yahoo! Australia & NZ. "It's a great way of staying in touch whether you're on your PC, or out and about." To use the new service, Telstra Mobile customers must first set up a Yahoo! Messenger service on their PC with a simple and quick download from http://messenger.yahoo.com.au. Extensive help pages and a sample tour are also available to help familiarise people with the service. Customers set up their accounts, nominating who they want to be able to exchange messages with, by adding them to their "Friends" list. This process ensures they remain in control of who sends them a Yahoo! Messenger for SMS message. Once customers sign in, they will receive a SMS with a list showing friends currently online. They can then choose to retrieve an update at any time, in case their friends have gone offline or to see if any new friends have come online. When signed in, customers can also add, delete and accept new friends to their list. For easy reference to these commands and more, they can print out a wallet-sized reference guide, available at the Yahoo! Australia and NZ Mobile site. Telstra Mobile users are charged the standard SMS rate for each SMS sent to either a PC or another phone via the service. A Telstra Mobile user is also charged 25 cents (GST Inclusive) for each Yahoo! Messenger SMS Message sent to their handset. This does not include Service Messages such as Help or Friends Lists. There is no charge for messages sent from PC to PC, other than normal ISP charges. The service is available to post and pre-paid Telstra Mobile customers. *Jupiter Media Metrix data from amrinteractive, June 2002
About Yahoo! Australia & NZ
Anna Featherstone Yahoo! Australia & NZ | |||