BT offers fixed line texting

BT has unveiled a new service that lets mobile phone users have text conversations with home phone customers.

Text messages, including smileys, are converted to automated speech and delivered as a voice message to fixed line phone customers.

Mobile phone customers with Vodafone, T Mobile, BT Mobile and 3 can send texts to fixed lines in the UK now but O2 subscribers will have to wait a few weeks before they can use the service.

Kingston Communications and Telewest have also signed up to use the text service. Telewest customers can currently receive text to speech text messages with a full outgoing service due by the end of the year.

Bruce Stanford, director of products at BT Wholesale, said: “Texting between mobiles is a phenomenal success story. Now it’s time for those with fixed phones to join in all the excitement."

"For phone owners, we see huge advantages. Parents can keep in touch with their children – and vice versa. And this will be an extra way to leave a message with someone who has no mobile or where a mobile is switched off or out of range," added Stanford.

If a fixed line customer has an SMS enabled phone registered for sending text they can exchange messages to a fixed line just as they can with a mobile. Standard phones that are fitted with answerphones or BT’s call-minding service will receive a voice message. SMS enabled home phones cost around £29.99.