Ltd. have teamed up to offer an E-mail paging service.

Using North Rock's E-Page service Telecom customers will be able to receive text messages of up to 200 characters on their alphanumeric pagers. The customer must also have a North Rock Internet account. The E-Page service will cost $5 a month.

Anyone with an Internet account from any provider can send an E-mail message to a person subscribed to the E-Page service. They do this either by sending an E-mail message to the person's E-mail pager address, or by going to a specially created Internet site.

Telecom managing director Richard Scott said the product gives the paging customer greater choice.

"Using E-Page, rather than receiving just a phone number, the customer will receive a text message saying exactly what is required,'' he said. "This will save an enormous amount of time and money. With E-Page a return phone call will not have to be made to find out what is required.'' Mr. Scott said other services such as E-Page StockWatch, News, and Golf Watch would be added to the service in a few weeks. StockWatch will allow investors to keep track of stock performance through their pagers.

North Rock general manager Tom Coelho said the service represented a way in which Internet providers could partner with others in the telecommunications business.

"We are not competitors,'' he said yesterday. "We are complementing each other's services.''