Yahoo is to boost its free email service by supporting SMS alerts to inform users when important messages arrive.

The service could benefit staff who do not have wireless access to corporate email.

Yahoo will launch the service in May, enabling users to create rules to trigger SMS alerts by either keyword or sender. The user can then gain internet access to check the email or receive it piecemeal as text messages.

The service will work across the UK mobile networks and pricing will be set at three levels. A Yahoo spokesman said that users could sign up to a Gold, Silver or Bronze account, with varying costs and numbers of messages.

Yahoo recently launched a service that allows users to send text messages from their email account and receive replies in email form.