Texting for Charities

Text messaging for charities. Man, what is next? Computing for the homeless? Don’t get me wrong. The idea is totally cool with me personally. Still, one has to ponder the possibility that it could spread onto other areas and lead to something even stranger!

The recent launch of Landline SMS by British Telecom does away with a number of the issues that have stalled the take up of texting by charities and other voluntary organisations. No subscription or pre-payment is required, as texts are charged to, and itemised on the telephone bill just like any other call. An additional benefit is that outgoing text messages are shown as coming from the sender’s normal phone number.

Text messages can be sent to, and received from, mobiles on all UK networks. The British Telecom service also allows a Text To Speech message to be sent to a normal landline telephone.

The ideal method to send a text message is with a proper keyboard and display, rather than using a mobile phone. Until recently, this would have involved an internet based service with pre-purchased time limited credits. Internet based solutions also suffer from not generally providing details of the sender, or a reply method.

A UK company has invented a solution that combines the advantages of British Telecoms Landline SMS service, with the convenience of using a Personal Computer to compose and receive text messages.

Z-text from NTS Telecom is simple to implement. Minimal training is required, as the user is presented with a screen similar to a basic email application. Messages can be composed in advance, and sent to multiple recipients in moments via the integrated phone book.

NTS Telecom offer discounts to UK charities and voluntary organisations.