Australia's Telstra To Launch Fixed Line Text Messaging

SYDNEY -(Dow Jones)- Attempting to keep the fixed line telephone relevant to consumers, Telstra Corp. (TLS) said Thursday it will introduce home telephones with text messaging capabilities.

The fixed-line text messaging service will be launched in early 2005 and Telstra, Australia's largest telephone company, is already selling text capable telephones at its retail shops.

The phones have been designed so that anyone familiar with a mobile will find the text messaging capable handset easy to use, Telstra's voice and convergence managing director Lynda O'Grady said in a statement.

Fixed-line text messaging will also "provide an important bridge between text savvy mobile users and the fixed line market encouraging mums and dads to be part of the phenomenon," she said.

The phones are being sold for A$129.

Telstra's fixed line business contributes about 40% of the company's annual revenues of A$21 billion but is losing ground to mobile phones, e-mail and new technologies that allow calls to be made over the Internet at a lower cost.

-By Stephen Wright, Dow Jones Newswires;

61-2-8235-2950; stephen.wright@dowjones.com

-Edited by Graham Morgan

(END) Dow Jones Newswires "

Posted to the site on 23rd December 2004