Starting next month you will be able to use your micro to write telemessages as well as to send and receive international telexes.

The "One to One" service is being introduced by Kensington Datacom, which will charge an annual subscription fee of £50 to anyone who wants to use its electronic mail, telex and telemessaging services.

There will be a charge every time you use the service - but the charges are substantially different from normal British Telecom rates. Sending a telex, for example, will cost 40p a minute over the price of normal telex rates plus a 10p a minute connect time charge (although the first 30 seconds of any call is free).

Harvey Coleman, managing director of the new company, said last week that since the company's £150 telecommunications software allows for preparation of electronic mail and telex message "offline", the connect time charges need be only minimal for most messages.

Perhaps the service's two most unusual features are the ability to send *and* receive telexes using your micro and the ability to use a telemessaging service to write a letter on your micro and have it sent out through the post by the One to One service.

Prestel allows you to send telexes within the UK only - you cannot receive them by electronic mail. Torch Computers' Torchmail service allows sending of international telexes through a Torch - but that's not much good if you don't have the machine.

The Comet electronic mail system is in the process of opening an international telex service. But the telemessaging service is probably unique and will give micro users the ability to send 'electronic' mail to people who don't have micros or electronic mailboxes.

The charge for this service will be 75p for the first page of a letter (100 characters) and 16p for each subsequent page of each letter.

The company will also be offering a £280 auto-dial, auto-answer modem for use with the service. But any 300-300 baud or 1200-1200 baud modem will suffice, as will any good telecommunications package.

If you don't even have a micro, they'll set you up with a terminal for £620. More information on the service is expected to become available next week.