Cellular One is introducing a new service which will enable users to send messages to other users and have information such as stock quotes sent directly to their phones.

A promotional advertisement for 'i-phone' appeared in The Royal Gazette yesterday which said: "i-phone gives you 2-way text messaging and the information you want delivered straight away to your cellular phone!

"Keep up to date by receiving daily text messages from any of the following categories: daily horoscopes, apartments for rent, local concerts/events, the stories daily update, daily stock market, words of wisdom, Bermuda daily news brief, local weather, movies and sale minders.

"Another first from Cellular One - Watch here for more details."

Cellular One Production and Marketing Manager John Narraway said yesterday that no-one else on the Island offers such a service and highlighted the huge success of the service in the UK and Scandinavia.

He said the service had become so well used in Scandinavia that people rarely spoke on their phone anymore and instead used it like a portable internet connection.

Cellular One is introducing the service due to customer demand, said Mr. Narraway and also said a group on the Island had been testing the service "quietly" for the last month.

Mr. Narraway said they were now in the final stages of testing and interest in the service had been growing.

He said the "full blown service" would be introduced to the general public within the next few weeks and the cost for using the service would vary depending on what packages customers opted for.

Mr. Narraway said: "Some parts will be free, some parts will be 15 cents a message, and some parts will be $1."

He said it was likely they would be offering packages with unlimited message capability for a flat fee, and Cellular One was in the process of finalising these packages right now.

However, Mr. Narraway said that only users of the service would be charged as opposed to the practices of other cellular phone providers on the Island and said: "We are trying to avoid raising everyone's monthly fees."

Mr. Narraway said there would be many options on the new phones and gave an example of one feature that boat captains were very excited about whereby they would have storm warnings and weather information sent to their phone as soon as any warnings were issued by the Bermuda Weather Service.

He also said that it would enable customers to dial up to the internet while remaining mobile.

Mr. Narraway said the new service will appeal to a wide spectrum of phone users, with the two-way messaging, also known as "chat", proving popular with the youngsters while other items such as stock quotes and apartments for rent would appeal to more of the adult population.

He also said they were developing business applications for the service and said a new enhanced version, known as 'i-phone plus' would be introduced within the next few months.

The launch of the basic service is expected within the next week.

The service is being provided in conjunction with two sources, firstly by G7, owners of the newly opened Internet Lane who will help with the content, as well as by Giant Bear, a US company that is part of South Western Bell who own Price Wireless who are owners of several Cellular One networks in the south of the US.

Mr. Narraway said more details would be released through the week.