If you send a lot of text messages, you probably have a text package added to your monthly cell phone bill. Maybe you’ve thought about adding email, but didn’t want the expense of a data package or the hassle of using your phone’s browser. Maybe you’re just married to a phone that’s text-capable, but not Web-enabled.

There is a solution to the problem, at least partially, in TeleFlip’s service. Here’s what it says:

[TeleFlip is] a patent-pending technology that delivers your e-mail from any e-mail account or service, personal or business, POP, Webmail or Exchange, directly to your cell phone regardless of your wireless carrier or mobile handset. In our companion product, flipOut!, we revolutionize how you communicate from your computer to anyone’s cell phone. Simply address a regular email to your recipient’s mobile phone number at the TeleFlip domain ( e.g. 2125555555@TeleFlip.com) and voila! In seconds your message is delivered to their cell phone — anywhere.

Keep in mind that if you’re sitting in front of your computer anyway, your end of the texting costs you nothing. Your correspondent, however, pays for the message and any reply according to whatever plan his/her provider has.

I’ve tried the services, and they work well. There are a couple of caveats, though.

The email system works by converting your mail to text, with a 120-character limit per page. That means long emails will eat up a lot of messages, and while scrolling through them isn’t a big deal, deleting them can be. You can limit the number of messages per email (getting the first couple of lines) and you can also select whose mail will be forwarded, to keep your phone from driving you nuts all day. If you have a unlimited text package and choose your accepted correspondents carefully, this could bridge the gap for you. It could certainly be the answer when waiting for that Very Important Email — or at least a way to learn that it has arrived.

The other thing is that the system is in Beta. Everything’s free, and will remain so, but plans are to append a short ad to the emails, starting next year, in order to make a buck. Can’t blame ‘em for that.

If you think TeleFlip’s all a crock, please don’t bother to leave messages to that effect. It obviously isn’t for everyone, so try to show a little tolerance. :p

Tags: text messages, email by phone, mobile email, mobile phones