TECHNOLOGY : Airtouch Cellular’s New Service to Help Customers’ Callers Get Message Across

Airtouch Cellular in Irvine said this week it plans to introduce a digital voice, paging and messaging service in the Los Angeles area in mid- to late February.

The service will cost $9.95 a month in addition to basic fees of about $30 a month. It will allow callers to send messages to Airtouch Cellular customers even if they don’t answer the calls or are away from their phones.

Messages can be in the form of a conventionally recorded voice message or a digital instruction from a list of pre-programmed options, such as “call home” or “call office.”

The service, known as “Display Messaging,” will be similar to one that the company introduced in the San Francisco Bay Area last year.

The company said it also plans to introduce later this year a technology for sending packets of digital data through regular cellular networks.