Clickatell saves customers up to 20%

SMS Text messages continues to grow in the business market as well as a handy way for friends and family to keep in touch.

Clickatell was one of the first companies to make a business out of offering worldwide SMS text messaging as a business tool.

Clickatell offers cheaper SMS texting worldwide and an easy to use service that is just as simple as sending a email. As staff and workstations are continuing to become more mobile, SMS texts are a great way to communicate.

www.webitpr reports on SMS text growth in the future;

SMS volumes around the world are poised to reach 1,000 billion in 2005, and a massive 2.38 trillion in 2010, according to Portio Research’s latest report, “Mobile messaging futures, 2005 – 2010”. Indeed, the research house said that 761 billion SMS were sent in 2004 – that’s over 100 messages for every man, woman and child on the planet.

SMS man: He has sent 5.25 lakh messages

An man in India is trying to make the Guiness Book of World Record for the largest number of SMS messages sent in a day.

Expressindia said that the man has been

Using his Rs 99 unlimited SMS pack, he has been sending 18,000 messages per day, with an average of 1,000 messages per hour. Deepak, who owns the 6600 Nokia mobile, sends all the 1,000 messages at one go. It takes three seconds for each message to be dispatched.

Some people must have too much time on their hands!

Police Warn Public On Two Scams

Police are warning public in Brunei of an SMS scams. Like the email scams of the last 5 years, this tries to trick people into thinking they have won a lot of money.

The police have also received information from the public regarding a scam that is being sent through the Short Messaging Service (SMS) from the Philippines.

These SMSs feature messages regarding D'PHIL CHARITY, SWEEPSTAKES and many more informing recipients that they have won a lottery draw involving a large sum of money.

These fake SMSs also inform recipients that they must send B$1,000 as an advance payment to process the `money' they have won.

Click on the link above to read more.

Your SMS can light up city roads

Who would of thought getting street lights repaired could soon be right at your finger tips. SMS the ID code of the light to have it repaired.

Expressindia.com looked into the idea to help improve the current service.

In the proposal that is awaiting approval, the traffic police have recommended a system whereby a unique ID will be painted boldly on each pole.

The complaints can be sent through SMS citing the ID number to a server that will compile the data with the help of a special software. The complaint number will be sent back automatically to the cellphone of the complainant.

It will be interesting to see if this takes off and people buy into this system. The set up of the ID tag for each post could a costly exercise.

UK business text growth ahead of consumer growth for the first time

SMS is establishing itself as a permanent fixture in business communications around the world. Texting is now not something just friends and family do to keep in touch.

According to Mike Grenville for 160characters.org, O2 Business Trending Index finds that;

Business SMS however looks set to show more consistent and steady growth as more and more employees across the UK adopt SMS as a viable communication option.

In 2000, the Mobile Data Association found that 19 million messages were sent daily. In February 2005, that figure had reached an average of 75 million a day, a massive increase that can be attributed in part to increasing take up of SMS for business purposes.

SMS for M2M messaging by M2Mblog

John Williams from M2M Tech in Auckland sent this link to us. John works with our XE8000 Data Logger that communicates using SMS.

David Geltner latest post on M2Mblog.com tackles the question of data transfer for M2M. David eplains that 'the most obvious answers tend to be GPRS, CDMA, POTS, and Ethernet. However this leaves out an important alternative that in many cases is less expensive and more appropriate, Short Message Service (SMS)'.

Geltner's blog highlights the pros and cons of SMS. The main points are outlined below.

The main advantages of SMS being:

Greater coverage than GPRS.
SMS messages aren’t transmitted over the date or voice channels; instead they are sent out-of-band, or over control channels.

Cost effective
If the M2M application requires only one or two small messages a day, the costs for SMS can be lower than for the other transports.

Automatic storage of messages
The Short Message Service Center (SMSC) stores messages if the destination is not reachable (for a limited amount of time), then forwards the messages when the destination becomes reachable.

Acknowledgment
When a message is sent, an acknowledgment is sent back by the SMSC to notify the sender that the message was successfully received by the SMSC.

Geltner lists the main pitfalls of SMS to be:

Higher latency, it takes longer for an SMS message to travel from sender to receiver.
CDMA/GPRS 300 – 700 ms
SMS – 5 seconds or more

Limited capacity
160 characters max per message
Message order not guaranteed
Messages not guaranteed to be delivered in the order that they were sent.

Implementation
Create an Extended Short Message Entity (ESME).
Use a cellular modem bank.
Locate a SMS provider and connect to their Short Message Service Center (SMSC).
Challenge of integrating multiple transports, i.e. SMS, GPRS, CDMA, POTS, and so on.

AIN are set to release GPRS data transfer with the XE8000 SMS Controller to offer an effective transfer method for those who need to transfer high volumes of data or time critical data. GPRS is expected to be available in Q4 2005 as an alternative method to go along side the current SMS system.

The Economics Of Spam

Spamming is a huge market, and unfortunately it is a financially viable one for the spammer. Email spamming is growing at an astonishing rate. With the huge increase in numbers of spam sent worldwide also comes a huge increase in its intelligence. Spam now comes in all types of email styles carrying virus and programs to pick email addresses out of your computer to add to a spam list.

Spam success and intelligence has caused it to jump technology boundaries and is now done using SMS to mobile phones. SMS spam, or spim (instant messaging spam) as it is referred to have a very high response rate compared to email and direct mail. Will this success result in unsolicited messages to cell phones daily?

Japan has already legislated against wireless SMS spam targeted at hapless mobile phone users and states in the USA are following suit. This is an indicator of how serious this form of spam is considered at really taking off.

Smart homes not far away

The entry "home" in your mobile phone address book will have a whole new meaning in a few years -- your place of residence is likely to be clever enough to send SMS messages directly to you, and you will do the same to it.

Communicating with your home is now becoming a realistic option. Go on holiday and send a text message to turn on the heating so the place is warm when you get there. SMS the lights at your main residence to give the impression to potential burglars someone is there.

Advanced Information Networks has looked at similar applications like the ones above and already has the ability to turn machines or gadgets on or off using the XE8000 SMS Controller.

Mobile Casinos Market Keeps Growing

What can you not do with a Mobile phone these days!

Mobile Casinos are a hit overseas with Java games including a Slot Machine, Dice and Horse Racing.

Experts consider it insignificant and doubt sms-gambling development because of limited technical possibilities of mobile phones as compared to computers.

I guess we will have to wait and see. New phone technology seems to be coming out by the month, each promising increased functionality and speed.

Think of the times spent with just you and your cell, at least now you can bet on your lucky number.

Guiness World Record

Deepak Sharma went on record with the Guinness Book for having sent the most SMS messages in a single month: 182,689. We’re not sure if that’s total, or unique messages, but if you’d like us to break that down for you, that’s about 6,100 messages a day, 253 an hour, 4.2 a minute, or a new one every 14 seconds or so. So basically this guy gave up a month of his life sending texts—way to go, dude. His other reward? A 1,411 page bill (don’t worry, he has an unlimited texting plan)

Driving & Sending SMS Equals Danger

Motorists call for efforts to stop some people who engage in dangerous driving like having one hand on the steering wheel while sending an SMS (short message service) with the other.

Sending SMS while driving is more dangerous than motorists who use their mobile phones without a hands-free kit. Now not only is a hand off the steering wheel, often eyes are off the road concentrating on a small screen creating an SMS message.

www.textually.com

It took just minutes to alert the world's media of Pope John Paul's death using text messages and email. Even the 2,000-year-old Church is up to play with meeting the new demands of real-time news.

About a quarter of an hour after the Pope was pronounced dead the Vatican sent the media an SMS message alerting them to a pending statement.

SMS 'Texting' on the rise

A new study shows that over a quater of American adults who have cell phones have used the devices for SMS messaging.

SMS allows users to send and receive short messages. SMS also includes features like receiving news alerts and weather updates.

Usage correlates with age: 63 percent of cell phone users ages 18-27 have used text messaging compared with 31 percent for ages 28-39 and 7 percent for those over 60.

SMS text authentication a hit down under

New Zealand's ASB Bank says over 19,000 customers have registered to use its Netcode SMS authentication system for transacting over the Internet since the service was launched in December 2004.

Movies a mobile call away

IMAGINE being able to tell your personal digital recorder to record a television program by sending an SMS text message.

This is just some of the innovations being planned by Foxtel, a pay TV Company.

Vote Machine Stardom with SMS

SMS is still the buzz and proves a simple way to encourage interaction.
The latest reality TV show overseas now generates an average of 3 million votes. Nearly 1.2 million, in itself a record, come in on sms from viewers mobile phones.

SimWorks warns of new cell phone viruses

A New Zealand antivirus company released a warning Tuesday about two new viruses threatening peoples use of cell phones.

The Gavno.a virus is transmitted via a download from Bluetooth-enable cell phones. The virus effects the ability to make calls.

SimWorks' chief executive Aaron Davidson said "The Gavno Trojan (horse) is a significant development. Until Gavno there has been nothing you could inadvertently install on your phone that could disrupt it to the extent that you could not even make a phone call,"

2 many txt msgs bad 4 U

Some Italian doctors believe excessive text messaging may be bad for your fingers.
They are telling people, particularly the young, that furious typing on mobile phones could lead to acute tendonitis.

Generosity for tsunami victims with SMS sonations

New ways to donate with SMS!

Ericsson has set up an SMS donation service in Australia and New Zealand. This service attracted thousands of messages with the money going directly to victims of the tsunami through the Red Cross Appeal.

Ericsson has also provided a complete CDMA mobile telephony system, phones and volunteers to assist victims of the devastating tsunami.

Labor to freeze Telstra line rentals

The Australian Labor Party, if elected, would launch an inquiry into the cost of SMS text messages. The global average is 13 cents in comparison to 25 cents in Australia. This is one of a range of policy initiatives Labor have regarding telecommunications.

Company launches service to find wi-fi hotspots via SMS

A system has been developed in the UK to allow people to easily find wi-fi hotspots by an SMS message. The service uses the cell site information associated with an SMS request and sends back information on the closest hotspot.

Picture messaging flops

Despite mobile operators hopes, a new report claims fewer users are sending picture messages between mobile phones. Instead people are using the phones to take and store photographs.