You got viral

Gee-whiz. All my cell phone has is voice mail and that "Breakout" game.

HONG KONG -- In this city where the SARS virus ranks highest on most worry lists, a cell phone company has created a text-messaging service that lets customers know if they're near a building where victims lived or worked.

The fee-based service, offered by Sunday Communications, represents a novel use of an up-and-coming technology called location awareness.

The wireless carrier relies on data that the government issues daily on buildings where hospitalized SARS patients had stayed in the previous 10 days and tailors the information for its subscribers.

With a few button punches on their handset keypads, subscribers can request a text message that lists all the SARS-affected buildings within a kilometer (0.62 mile) of the calling location.