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e-mail through SMS

Mobee Mobile Service allows people to access their e-mail messages from an ordinary mobile phone, without their having to use GPRS, writes Nivedan Prakash

E-mail on the mobile has long been associated with the BlackBerry or other high-end smartphones, depriving owners of basic handsets of mobile access to e-mail. That’s changed and people can access their e-mail on any handset, thanks to Mobee Mobile Services that has brought an e-mail to SMS service, which lets users access their e-mail from even a run-of-the-mill black and white handset.

Mobee Mobile Services is a software development company offering e-mail on mobiles via SMS and provides technology solutions in the mobile e-mail messaging space. The company’s forte lies in providing consumers and enterprise users with an end-to-end service to enable e-mail on their mobiles.

Mobee is a new service that lets people access e-mails on their cell phones, irrespective of the cell phone model that they have. You can get mail even on the most basic model of phone available in the market and that too without putting GPRS to use. The development on the Mobee.in platform started in January 2008 and it was officially launched in July 2008.

Dashratham Bitla, CEO, Mobee Mobile Services, stated, “Mobee Mobile Services brings a new technology to people that lets them access e-mail while they are on the go, irrespective of the kind of handset they have. For the first time people would be able to view their e-mails sans GPRS, sans smartphones, and most important of all, sans a computer.”

On the rationale behind coming up with this kind of technology, Bitla pointed out that e-mail is the most common communication tool used today and that the mobile phone is there with everyone these days. People still miss out sales opportunities, interviews, meetings, and other casual e-mails, due to unavailability of these e-mail messages when they are away from their desks. To check e-mail, people have to upgrade their cell phone to GPRS-enabled ones and opt for data plans.

“A simple thought came—why not enable e-mail access on any mobile (even on ultra-low cost mobile handsets) via SMS at a fraction of the cost of any other alternative. Mobee.in works with any mobile, wherein no GPRS is needed and nothing has to be installed. Further, mobee.in simplifies the e-mail experience on your mobile with a few keywords to manage your e-mail communication,” added Bitla.

Getting mobee

In order to avail of this service, a user has to first signup (SMS SIGNUP to 09845498454) to get e-mail on the mobile. An account will then be created on mobee.in and the user will get a mobee.in e-mail account as <urnumber>@mobee.in.

Once this is done, the user needs to put his mobee id as a forwarding address for his mails by adjusting the settings of his default e-mail id, such as gmail, yahoo, hotmail, etc. Mobee.in will deliver all the e-mails that it receives to the mobile instantly as SMS.

Bitla further added, “You can receive e-mail from any of webmails like gmail/yahoo/rediff/msn, etc., or corporate e-mails just by forwarding a copy of your e-mails onto your mobee id. Once that is done, you would start receiving e-mails from your mail account on your cell.”

Moreover, it lets users read full e-mail, reply to the sender or reply to all, and send mail. In addition to this, it comes with powerful spam filters, SMS backup services and flexible start/stop controls that allow users to start and discontinue the service as and when the user wishes to. They can even know what attachments are there in the mail and whether it’s just sent to them or to a group. Moreover, the users have the freedom to choose how many SMS per mail he/she should receive.

Mobee delivers e-mails on your cell phone as an SMS that eliminates the need for Internet connectivity and also one need not worry about the bandwidth and the spectrum speed, etc. As and when a new mail arrives into your mailbox, it is forwarded to your mobee account and from there it is sent as an SMS to your cell phone.

SMS being available on all mobile handsets, Mobee.in leverages SMS technology to push e-mail on to mobiles.

Users can easily attach files to e-mail and send it to the concerned person. They just need to preload frequently attached documents onto mobee, like a resume, a business proposal, or a plan. When the document is uploaded onto the person’s mobee id, an attachment number or code is generated. As and when he sends a mail, he just needs to mention the attachment number or code along with the mail and the document is attached along with the mail and the recipient is able to see the attachment on his PC.

Bitla explained, “When you receive an e-mail that has attachments through mobee, the SMS that you receive on your cell would indicate how many files are attached along with the mail which you can view once you see the mail on the PC. Since you receive your e-mails as SMS and not as MMS on your cell, you will not be able to view the images or the other attachments in your mail when it appears on your cell phone.”

Meanwhile, when a user receives an e-mail SMS from mobee, the message displays 480 characters of the e-mail on the handset. If he wishes to read the entire mail, he just needs to SMS READ and the message id to mobee and he would receive the entire mail on the mobile. An e-mail SMS from mobee is broken down into three SMSes per mail, each consisting 160 characters and each one updating the last message. Thereby the user gets 480 characters of the e-mail at one go. The basic idea, here, is not to flood the inbox with lots of SMS for a single mail.

Not a pricy affair

What makes mobee even more special is that to get it activated, users do not have to go through a long and complicated process. It is as simple as getting a new e-mail address.

The one important aspect of this service is that when a user creates an account in mobee and has put it in sync with the main e-mail account, he has the option of blocking certain mail id or ids from where he does not wish to receive e-mails. The user can also configure the main e-mail account for better spam filtering so that only mails that he wishes to read would be forwarded to his phone. With this, the users need not have to worry about the spam mails flooding the inbox.

“Targeted at the common man, mobee provides its services at really affordable prices and has different plans for its customers, the rates of which vary depending upon the number of e-mails the user wishes to view in a day. The service comes as a real blessing for people who have a constant need to stay connected and cannot afford an expensive smart phone,” added Bitla.

Mobee is a budget friendly service that lets people stay connected at low prices. The rates depend upon the number of e-mails a user wishes to have on his mobile phone per day, the lowest being Rs 30 per month for 10 messages / day and the highest being Rs 79 per month for unlimited messages / day. Regarding the payment mode, a user can pay through his credit / debit cards, cheques or even in cash. Here, the user need not have to worry about the money being deducted from his mobile’s talk-time balance.

nivedan.prakash@expressindia.com