SENDING SMS messages back home helped to ease polytechnic graduate Kenneth Yap's homesickness when he was in Hong Kong serving an internship last year.

But little did he know that each SMS he sent to his family back in Singapore would cause a dent in his wallet.

Just by sending between 20 and 30 SMS messages per month and making some phone calls, his monthly mobile phone bill was $300.

This was twice the sum he usually paid when he was back in Singapore.

What irked him most was the cost of each SMS - he had spent approximately $1 on each message sent.

"The amount that I paid was exorbitant. After three months of paying the phone bills, I decided to obtain a Hong Kong pre-paid card instead. By using the card, I had to pay about $60 per month," said the 20-year-old.

Kenneth's case is not unique. A search of online local forums and blogs revealed that there were more than 30 Singaporeans complaining about the high cost of sending SMS messages when overseas.

One of them, a Sgforums user who goes by the Web name Unclebutcher stated that he had spent 70 cents on each SMS message sent from Malaysia to Singapore, and 50 cents on one sent from Japan.

M1 said that one reason for the high cost of sending SMS messages from overseas is that different overseas networks charge different rates.

For instance, when sending messages from America, you might be using the AT&T network to deliver the message overseas. It charges a higher rate than its competitor network Verizon.

Said Ms Geraldine Lai, a corporate communications executive of M1:

"Roaming tariffs, including those for SMS sent from overseas, are primarily determined by rates set by the overseas network operators who are our roaming partners."

To ensure that SMS charges are kept low, you should choose the right mobile phone network before you send the SMS message.

To do this, select the Settings option on your mobile phone, followed by the Phone icon.

Under the Operator Selection tab, select the Manual option. This lets you select the operator network before you send any messages.

To determine which network has the cheapest rates, visit their online websites to find out more about the charges.

SingTel, M1 and StarHub also offer services that promise to allow users to send cheap SMS messages even when they're atop Paris' Eiffel Tower or in the middle of New York City's Central Park.

For M1 users

M1 OFFERS a SmartRoam SMS service which charges a flat rate, regardless of the country that the user is in.

For M1 customers with a roaming subscription, they will be charged a standard rate of $0.15 for every Smart-Roam SMS sent. Pay-per-use roaming customers, on the other hand, will be charged $0.30 for each SMS.

According to M1, customers can enjoy savings of up to 80 per cent when they use this service.

For example, sending SMS messages from India would cost $0.90, but users will only be billed $0.15 per text message when they use this service. This translates to a 83 per cent saving.

SmartRoam SMS is automatically available to M1 postpaid customers with a roaming subscription or are roaming on a pay-per-use basis. Customers can visit any customer service centre to activate their roaming service.

For StarHub users

AS MOST business travellers bring along their laptop computers, StarHub is offering the WebSMS service, where users can send SMSes from their PCs to the mobile phones of other StarHub subscribers in any other country.

To use this service, log on to www.starhub.com/websms from your computer.

Enter the recipient's mobile phone number on the Web page, followed by the text message that you want to send.

Click on the Send button and the recipient will receive the message instantly.

Your friend can also reply to your SMS from his mobile phone and the message you receive will be shown on your computer's Web page.

For SingTel users

LIKE StarHub, SingTel is also offering a free Internet SMS Chat service where users can send SMSes from their PCs to the mobile phones of other SingTel subscribers.

Just log in to your account at www.sms.singtel.com/internetsms to use it.

If Internet messaging is not that appealing, you can send messages from your mobile phone via Wireless Application Protocol (WAP).

To do this, connect to the Internet on your handset and launch the Sing- Tel Ideas website.

At the Message Station page, key in the phone number of the recipient and the message you want to send.

Your message will be automatically sent to the recipient's handset.

Although subscribers incur GPRS charges when using this method, the cost incurred would be lower than sending SMSes the usual way.

An SMS sent from Malaysia to Singapore using this method will cost $0.25.

This is less than the $0.61 that is usually charged.

This story was first published in The Straits Times Digital Life on 15 April 2008.