Telstra brings Yahoo IM to SMS - News - Communications

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This story was printed from ZDNet Australia.
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Telstra brings Yahoo IM to SMS

By James Pearce, ZDNet Australia
August 15, 2002
URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/communications/soa/Telstra-brings-Yahoo-IM-to-SMS/0,130061791,120267419,00.htm

Telstra customers can now access their Yahoo Instant Messenger account on their mobile phones, via SMS.

The users set up their Yahoo Instant Messenger account (YIM) by adding everyone they want to be able to exchange messages with to their -Friends" list. They then receive an SMS detailing friends currently online.

"At any time they can put their Yahoo ID and password into an SMS and send it to a number, and it will reply showing a list of contacts that are online," Yahoo media producer Brian Boys told ZDNet Australia. He said the system is already set up, so Telstra customers who use Yahoo just have to send this message and they can access their YIM account.

Users are charged the standard 25-cent SMS rate for each message sent to a PC or other mobile, and for each YIM SMS message sent to their phone. However, service messages such as Help and Friends lists are sent free of charge.

-It is the first fully integrated, popular Internet-based instant messaging service available to mobile phone users in Australia," said David Thodey, Telstra Mobile group managing director, in a statement.

ICQ has offered the ability to send instant messages via SMS for several months, without charging for messages sent from a computer to a phone. However, ICQ has no way to check which of the users contacts are online.