Every cell phone has an email address associated with it. Thus, to send email to a cell phone, all you have to do is know the email-to-SMS gateway of the recipient's service provider. Then, you can email cell phones with plain text messages by entering the recipient's cell phone number ahead of this domain.
Of course, if you have access to mobile Internet, you can send and receive email messages from your regular accounts. All you need is a phone designed for Web access, using either wired 3G networking technology or Wi-Fi.
How to Send Email to a Cell Phone
To send cell phone email messages, you need to know the recipient's telephone number and their service provider. From there, you can just use the service provider's email-to-SMS gateway as the domain and your message should be delivered instantly.
Some carriers will allow you to email a photo to a cell phone free of charge, provided the photo is the only deliverable in the message (in other words, there's no text to go with it) and the picture falls within specified data limits. While these limits vary from carrier to carrier, smaller files are more likely to be accepted as a general rule.
In addition, most carriers have separate email-to-SMS gateways for text-based messages and photos. For example, to send Verizon cell phone email messages, the gateway for a simple text message is "vtext.com" while it is "vzwpix.com" for photo messages. Thus, for a phone number following the form (123) 456-7890, you would type "1234567890@vtext.com" into your email client to send a text-only message and use "1234567890@vzwpix.com" to email a photo.
Use a Smartphone to Send and Receive Email
The process is much easier if you use a Smartphone. These mobile communication devices are specially designed for Web browsing as well as talk and text functions, and you need only an Internet connection to be able to get browser-based access to your usual email accounts.
If you use a Smartphone to send email, you can add any number of file attachments, include URL links in your messages to direct recipients to websites, and take advantage of the full functionality you're used to when you're sitting at your computer.