Singapore , 29 January 2008 -- Ever wished you had access to the latest business and soccer news on your mobile phone while on the move? With the latest mobile phone news alert service initiated and jointly provided by Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) and Singtel, you will literally have news at your fingertips.

 

SPH and Singtel are collaborating to provide this service to their customers. Called the  SPH Breaking News SMS Alert, this service is offered exclusively to all Singtel post-paid subscribers.

 

Singtel subscribers are able to choose any of the following five options:

 

English News               

Chinese News

 

Receivers of the SMS alerts will receive first hand important news in summarised, concise format which can be stored in their mobile phones and read at their own convenience. This caters well to a country like Singapore, which is a country with one of the highest mobile phone penetration rates in the world, and one that has one of the highest rates of SMS messages sent per capita.

In addition, for the very first time in Singapore, Breaking News in Mandarin via SMS alerts is available. Subscribers to the  Chinese News SMS Alert will receive news snippets that focus on general interest issues as well as the Chinese entertainment scene.

Soccer fans who subscribe to the  Soccer News SMS Alert can now also get football news and tips from the editorial teams of both popular evening newspaper Shin Min Daily News and SPH's flagship Chinese newspaper Lianhe Zaobao. This service will be popular to soccer fans who are more comfortable with Chinese than English, as most of the existing soccer news and tips are in English. 

 

The  Business & Finance SMS Alert would be of particular interest to busy executives who would like to be kept well-informed of key happenings in the world of business and finance. These updates are provided by The Business Times and The Straits Times, both published by SPH. With this service, subscribers have the advantage of receiving the latest news before their executive counterparts. They also have the option to read the news as and when they have time on their hands as they shuttle between meetings.

 

Mr James Heng, Executive Vice President of Product Branding / Digital Media of SPH, said: ¡°Now with SPH Breaking News SMS Alert service, all Singtel Mobile users can have easy and timely access to the latest news breaks. They can still continue to access full stories and updates on SPH WAP Mobile News Service launched about a year ago.

 

As a leading media company, SPH will work with our partners to seek innovative ways to provide the public with quality content which are relevant and timely."

 "We are very pleased to be the first to offer this SMS alert service to our subscribers," said Mr Low Ka Hoe, Director of mio TV and Content. "Being able to keep a finger on the pulse of the latest news at all times - no matter where they are - is something we are certain our customers will find to be extremely useful and valuable. We are especially excited about bringing Chinese and soccer news to customers who are more comfortable with the language but have so far had to settle for updates in English."

The SPH Breaking News SMS Alert service comes at an affordable price ranging from $4.28 to $5.35 per month (including GST). For this price, subscribers will receive between 17 to 25 SMS alerts per month. There could be more SMSes sent for major news outbreaks. The SMSes are usually sent out between 9am and 8pm.

 

As an incentive for Singtel post-paid subscribers to sign up for the SPH Breaking News SMS Alert, the subscription fees for the SMS alerts will be waived for the first 30 days. 

To subscribe to SPH Breaking News SMS Alert, Singtel users simply need to dial *155 on their mobile phones.

For more information, log on to  www.asiaone.com/mobilenews or  www.ideas.singtel.com.