American Telephone & Telegraph Co. has announced that it is setting up a service that will enable family and friends of American military personnel serving in the Middle East as part of Operation Desert Shield to send facsimile greetings to the troops, free of charge.

AT&T will begin accepting messages Sept. 21 at its 400 Phone Centers.

The company is offering free use of its network to transmit letters and drawings one way to troops in the Middle East as part of a morale-boosting effort it calls Desert Fax. The duration of the service will depend on several factors, including cost, volume of messages and benefits to military personnel and their families.

Because the fax messages will be sent electronically, the time required to reach their destinations will be reduced.

Desert Fax will provide a quick and easy way for family and friends to send a half-page message to U.S. service people in Operation Desert Shield, said Robert Dalziel, AT&T vice president for global networks.

“We are honored to be providing this service in full cooperation with the military postal service,” Dalziel said.

A facsimile or fax machine takes an ordinary printed page and translates it into electronic signals that are sent through the telephone network and reprinted by a receiving facsimile machine.

After the messages are sent from the Phone Centers to the Middle East, the military postal service will deliver the messages to service people in Operation Desert Shield at regular mail calls.

The concept of Desert Fax was proposed by Sen. Alan Cranston, D-Calif., as a means of bolstering the morale of troops in the Middle East. When AT&T completes final testing of equipment next week, the service will have progressed from concept to start up in about two weeks.

AT&T Phone Centers in Maine are located at the Bangor Mall and at the Maine Mall in South Portland.