SINGAPORE: Using a mobile phone to send text messages will soon be a different experience.

By 2009, short-message-service or SMS could come with advertisements.

This is known as SMS 2.0 and will be introduced to this region by a UK-based company, Affle.

In Singapore, the company is working with Singapore telco MobileOne and cell phone manufacturer Nokia.

The advertisements will be customised to the user's liking. There will also be seamless search functions as well.

"It's a service that's free for the user. They get a much better, much more engaging consumer experience at the same cost as the old SMS and with the same simplicity as the old SMS," said Anuj Khanna, CEO, Affle.

In Singapore, mobile service provider M1 is the only one working with Affle to provide this service.

But just last week, SingTel launched a free mobile e-mail service, with embedded advertising.

Still, based on its trials in Singapore and India, M1 and Affle believe users are more likely to explore advertisements on an SMS platform, rather than a mobile web browser.

"It will also allow media companies to pass information to the customer, particularly info they've said they're interested in. The big thing we found with this was in the several thousand customers who trialled it, over 90 per cent found it acceptable and did not find it intrusive," said Neil Montefiore, CEO, MobileOne.

With SMS 2.0, Affle believes mobile service providers, phone companies, as well as advertisers can expect revenue to increase by 10 per cent in South East Asia, over the next few years. - CNA/yy