(SINGAPORE) 'It's got Bluetooth, 3G, MP3, and 3.2 megapixel camera,' said 15-year-old A Yong of his latest and third handphone, a Nokia 73 that cost $499 with a two-year plan.

Mr Yong, from a top school in Singapore, said he has a basic cheap plan and is typical of teenagers here who would die without their mobile phone. Just about everyone in his class of 34 carries a handphone.

'They have integrated mobile phones into their culture, their lifestyle and to some people, an expression of their personality,' says M1 spokesman Chua Swee Kiat.

Avidly courted by telcos, teenagers and those under 21 represent the growing trend among young people to stay in touch with family and friends through their mobiles.

None of the three dominant telcos here - Singapore Telecom, StarHub and MobileOne - is willing toshare information on the size of its aged 16-26 market. But all say youngsters are a valuable market.

All three say their student plans, which can be as low as $19.95 a month, are popular.

M1 enjoyed the strongest growth in handset sales last year - up 22 per cent to $89.4 million. At StarHub, sales rose 6 per cent to $93.1 million. And at SingTel, they advanced 6.6 per cent to $169 million for the nine months ended 2006.

Says SingTel spokeswoman Tricia Lee: 'This is a valuable market for us because it is one of the only major growth areas in a highly saturated market.

'This group of customers is also more receptive to new technology and features, making it easier to convince them to try out new value-added services and content features', says Ms Lee.

Singapore has a mobile phone subscriber rate of more than one per person. SingTel, StarHub and M1 have a combined customer base of 4.61 million for a population of 4.5 million.

'They are important to mobile operators because communicating on the mobile phone is one of their top activities,' StarHub spokeswoman Cassie Fong says of young people.

Generally, teenagers are keen users of text messages because this helps keep their phone bills down.

They are also tech savvy and can maximise the features of their mobiles to download videos and songs without incurring extra charges, observers say.

But at the same time, some youngsters - often with their parents' money - will buy the latest fashion and feature-rich mobiles that cost several hundred dollars.

This group demands phones with Bluetooth connection, integrated camera, MP3 player, web browser, large memory storage, says StarHub's Ms Fong.

'They have higher purchasing power and buy the latest handsets in the most stylish designs,' she says.

P Phadoemchit, 17, bought his latest mobile recently with 'ang pow' money. His Sony Ericsson K8001 cost $450 on a two-year plan.

A student at the Australian International School, he says that everyone in his Year 12 class of 84 owns a mobile.

'The last holdout was a Japanese guy who gave in this year because he found it hard to keep in touch with our group without a phone,' says Mr Phadoemchit.

SingTel and StarHub say teenagers below 18 cannot sign up as subscribers but can be pre-paid customers. Most get their parents or an older relative to sign for them.

M1, the first telco to aggressively target youngsters by introducing student plans in 2004, allows people of 16 to sign up for service.

While generally teenagers are a disciplined lot when it comes to usage, industry players say a spike in bills is often seen during school holidays, and it is typically adults who pay up.

'My young cousin chalked up a $200 bill during the holidays and her godmother paid up. After all, the line is in her name,' says a marketing manager.

SingTel's Ms Lee points out: 'We have not experienced any unusual default rate from this group.'

As teenagers move on to university and polytechnic, M1 and SingTel up the ante by offering fiercely competitive free campus calls under student plans. Customers who opt for free campus calls can make unlimited local voice calls within Singapore's nine campuses - Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Nanyang Polytechnic, Republic Polytechnic, Singapore Polytechnic, Temasek Polytechnic, NTU, NUS, SIM and SMU.

Perhaps the next move could be to offer free calls.

According to a report last month by The Guardian newspaper, Britain's teenagers will be able to stop badgering their parents to pay their mobile phone bills with the launch of a new service that offers free calls and text messages provided users are willing to receive adverts on their phones.

The report said Blyk, a start-up run by the former president of the Finnish mobile firm Nokia, will sign deals with advertisers including Coca-Cola, L'Oreal and Buena Vista, part of the Disney media empire, as it works up to a summer launch in the UK.

Blyk's free service will start with British 16-to-24-year-olds - because as advertisers realise, using multimedia devices is as natural to them as breathing air.