MOBILE phone users in Myanmar may soon have a chance to access email directly from their phone screen as a domestic IT company last week revealed its plan to offer a mobile email service named ‘Blue Cherry’.

A spokesperson for Information Technology Central Services (ITCS) said they are negotiating with the state-owned telecommunications provider, Myanma Post and Telecommunications, to provide the email services in August this year.

The email service, which will let users to have their own mobile mail accounts enabling them to forward received mail to mobile phones with Short Messaging System (SMS), is aimed at businesspeople and youngsters, he added.

“The email service will be based on the SMS system and it can be used in GSM and CDMA 450 MHz mobile phones. As the email service is based on SMS, it can be used only for text only and not with attachments and pictures,” he said.

He said users had to register the mobile email services at authorised resellers, such as mobile phone shops, and they would pay installation fees.

“There will be specific per message charges for sending and receiving emails by phone. The charges might be between K50 and K100 for sending emails and about K50 for receiving emails,” he added.

The mobile email account, which has 100MB storage capacity, can receive automatically forwarded mails from other emails – including gmail, yahoo mail and hot mail. Though attachments and pictures can’t be read on mobile phones, users are allowed to check them at assigned websites, he said.

“If the user’s mobile phone is smart phone and it has Myanmar fonts, users can get mail in the Myanmar language. Although the email is based on SMS, there are plans to upgrade it by using GPRS (General Packet Radio System), allowing users to use better email services and to surfing the internet,” he added.