Have you ever sent someone an email, and then for days you don’t receive a reply? Well all of us have, and the problem with email is that unless the other party checks their email everyday, there’s no way them knowing that they have mail. This is a common problem I have, I email people and then have to wait indefinitely for a reply. When I finally get to ask them why they didn’t reply to my email, the usual reply is “What email?” They didn’t even know they had new mail.
I’ve found a solution to this problem. There is a website called internat.co.za that allows you to send emails to anyone with a cellphone. They the send the person a notification via SMS that they have a message from you, and they can go online from their pc or cellphone to read it. This is pretty awesome. It is basically free sms without the 160 character limit. In essence it is not strictly speaking email, its more than that. Anyone with a cellphone can be “emailed” even if they don’t have an email address. The site offers 10 free sms notifications per day, so you can send up to 10 messages and they can be as long as you want them to. Essentially this is free email to sms in a way.
The service is however only available in South Africa as the website only allows sending sms messages to vodacom, mtn, cell c and virgin mobile. This free sms service is available to everyone. All it requires is for you to register with your email address and cellphone number, no lengthy forms or anything like that, so you’ll be messaging in a snap. Check it out and let me know what you think.
