Ur mssn shld u dcde 2 accpt it

PIGGYBACKING ON the popularity of the Mission Impossible TV series, Staellium has just launched a new mobile service called Stealth Text. It seems to be proving so popular you can't get through to it.

The objective is to send people text messages which 'self-destruct' after they've been sent. Customers for this service are expected to be government organisations, the military and naughty celebrities.

At 50 pence a throw (plus online data charges), Stealth Text also seems to be aimed at the moderately wealthy. It presently appears restricted to the UK and won't work for sending from 3 mobile phones either.

To register with the service, customers simply text the word 'stealth' to 80880. That generates a WAP Push message that contains the appropriate embedded URL. This should take you onto the Stealth site where you sign up for ten messages at a total cost of £5.

The INQ has spent a whole morning trying to get the service to work. We've managed to sign up but our first self-destructing stealth message has yet to arrive.

The company assured us there haven't been any problems previously - so perhaps the volume of traffic has overwhelmed it?

One publication had observed that downloading a 'stealth' app to your mobile phone would be a dead giveaway. However, Staellium doesn't use a Java app or anything similar - users simply go onto the WAP site every time they want to send a stealth text.

So there is no trail on your handset. Only Staellium keeps records.

Nice idea but perhaps they should have tested a bit more extensively before launching? µ