New application for cheap SMS text messaging offers big savings over Pay As You Go tariffs

Whitstable, 13 August, 2008. The SMS text messaging application FishText (www.fishtext.com) has attracted more than 100,000 registered users since its launch three weeks ago. FishText is used to send text messages to destinations across the globe, bypassing the mobile operators’ networks and thus dramatically reducing text messaging charges. FishText subscribers profit from the lowest messaging rates available anywhere and can also send free messages to other subscribers.

Installing FishText and creating a FishText.com account is free. FishText can save over 95% on texts to foreign destinations, as sending texts to people in other countries is often very expensive on mobile network tariffs. Typical prices for sending a message (excluding data charges) with FishText range from GBP0.01 to 0.05 (EUR0.02 to 0.07), which is a big saving over Pay As You Go tariffs. Users that already have “inclusive” text messages can also save money by dropping their bundles or switching to a cheaper tariff. The average top-up amount for FishText is GBP13, mostly by using PayPal and credit/debit card on the mobile application. The most active FishText countries (behind the UK) are Italy, Germany, India, Spain, South Africa, Netherlands, France, Indonesia, Latvia, Sweden, Belgium and Pakistan.

“We are delighted with the popularity of FishText and feedback so far indicates that users are extremely pleased with the service”, says Ben Fitter, Director of New Media at CardBoardFish, the specialist SMS text messaging solutions provider which developed FishText. “FishText’s success demonstrates that traditional text messaging is an overpriced and underdeveloped service. Many users have expressed surprise that the FishText mobile application delivers text messages all over the world so reliably for just a couple of pence, while their own operator charges over ten times that amount with some not even providing delivery reports or charging extra for them.”

After registering, every user gets GBP0.20/EUR0.30 worth of free credit, which is up to 20 free text messages. As an introductory offer which has been extended to 14th August 2008, FishText users topping up with GBP20 or EUR20 will get their credit doubled, with no expiry date. This will effectively halve the price of all messages, so that texts to South Africa or the US for example will cost just 0.7 pence.

FishText is ad-free and the recipient will see the sender’s normal mobile phone number without any FishText branding. FishText also enables text messages of up to 459 characters and supports the synchronization of the mobile and the web-based application. FishText uses strong encryption to keep customer data safe and secure on both the mobile application and the web.

The application runs on most Java enabled mobile handsets (wap.fishtext.com) and unlike many other applications that require high-end handsets, FishText is accessible to a mass market audience. FishText can also be used via the Internet (www.FishText.com), thus giving the freedom to use either method, or both, to send and receive text messages.

A tutorial on how to use the FishText mobile application, as well as further information on pricing, coverage and data charges used by FishText are available at www.fishtext.com.