Foreign Ministry to offer SMS service for travellers

Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs has signed a deal with Nitro FX to construct an SMS service for travellers. Nitro FX is a Finnish company specialised in digital communciation with several national and international awards for products designed for the private and public sector.

The SMS service is aimed at better servicing Finns who might need assistance when travelling abroad, particularly in matters related to consular and passport issues as well as in case of crisis.

The service is operated by sending SMS messages to mobile phones. The Foreign Ministry does not charge the user who will only pay for the messages he sends in accordance with the general operator tariffs.

The service is divided into three sections:

- When a person travelling abroad needs contact information for Finnish consular services he can text a request to a specified number and will be replied with information containing a street address and a telephone number.

- A traveller can also pre-order press releases containing travel information published by the Foreign Ministry. He can request all press releases or those concerning one particular country, or he can request only the latest one on a specific country.

- A traveller, if he wishes, can inform the Foreign Ministry of his itinerary when travelling in areas where crises may occur.

It is envisaged that the service will be ready by early April.

More information: Raija Leppäjärvi, Web Editor, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, e-mail: [email protected], tel: (09) 1341 5991; Antti Villanen, Managing Director, Nitro FX, e-mail: [email protected]; tel: (09) 8620 2227 or 040 568 4114.