Chat-MX text service, from Chatterbox allows disabled and deaf people to virtually make and get limitless text massaging at a very low price.

Anyone with a GPRS mobile handset or PDA can download the Chatterbox software and offer free copies to up to 50 friends.

The system combines text messaging and “Web-Chat”. SMS are converted into data and sent via the internet to the Chatterbox server. The receiving phone then converts them back so that they appear as text messages.

The company hopes that clubs and other organisations will consider running their own Chatterbox servers so that they could maintain a private network.

They also intend to launch a PC version.

See the article in BBC Technology.