SMARTONE Mobile Communications plans to introduce message-taking services for mobile-phone subscribers early next year, says a senior executive. Smartone sales and marketing general manager Connie Wong said the new services are voice mail and a secretarial service. The voice-mail service functions as an answering machine allowing a caller to leave a message to be passed on later, while the secretarial service will monitor the subscriber's availability and take messages. Ms Wong said the company also is negotiating with Hongkong Telecom CSL Mobile to expand its coverage on MTR platforms by the end of the year. She said the company will share the infrastructure with CSL Mobile, and the network will cover the same area as CSL Mobile.