Soon, you can pass on SMS jokes in Devnagari

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">VADODARA: "<span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Darakht ke paimane pe, chilmane husn ka furkat se sharmana. Gar ho dum tum main to yeh line mujhe bhi samjhana</span>." This was an SMS joke (minus the expletive) that did the rounds recently. Only it would sound so much dearer to our ears if it could be read in Hindi, or a regional language.<br /><br />Top mobile phone companies of Gujarat are already in the process of introducing their GSM services in Hindi and it''s not just for those addicted to jokes on the SMS.The companies believe that Hindi can bring a phenomenal rise in users.<br /><br />On an average, more than a lakh users download value-added services like games on their mobile every month. In addition to the cellphone going increasingly user-friendly, this would also help the service providers to tap the burgeoning small town and rural market.<br /><br />Although companies have registered a steady increase in mobile telephony in the rural segment, the services they hope to provide in Hindi are short messaging service (SMS), multimedia messaging service (MMS), jokes, movie reviews, astrology, news, and ring tones.<br /><br />Accessing the value-added services in Hindi would become far simpler for the rural folk, they say.<br /><br />Chief marketing and commercial officer of Idea Cellular Limited, Sukanta Dey said, "Not just the rural areas, we plan to rope in smaller towns and cities too. It will also be useful for the urban population using mobiles as messaging in Hindi would be preferred by many."<br /><br />Say sources, an average of 1.2 lakh games are downloaded every month by Hutch users currently. This is a phenomenal 50-fold increase from an average of 2,200 mobile game downloads in February last year.<br /><br />"We definitely plan to launch services in Hindi but we can talk about them only after the service is launched. It would be an ideal feature for many users in the rural as well as the urban area. As far as concentrating on the rural segment is concerned, more cell sites are required to tap the market," said chief operating officer of Hutch (Gujarat) Sanjoy Mukherjee.<br /><br />We have already started ‘Chogadiya'' on our WAP service, which offers information exclusively in Gujarati about the auspicious time to start businesses and other activities, said Atul Joshi, the chief operating officer, Airtel (Gujarat). We also have plans to start the voice-activated service - 646 - in Hindi throughout the country, he added.<br /><br />"Our basic effort is to provide users with three dialects including English, Hindi and a regional language. But all the services like SMS cannot be provided in regional languages, as the software on the mobile phone does not support it. But mobile phone features does not obstruct us in extending our services in Hindi and Gujarati," added Joshi.</div> </div>