| Short Message Service | |
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Introduction Technical Overview Applications Added Value For Users Benefits For Service Providers Future Of SMS Links And References Summary |
Added Value For Users
Why Is Short Message So Popular? "Hey, there is a funny envelope on my mobile phone! What does it stand for?" Probably any one of us can recall her first short message (sms). My first received short message was from a friend of mine wishing me good luck day before my final high school exam in 1996. Over these three years, a lot has changed! I learnt to use short message feature of my cellular phone, and even better, I found internet-based services allowing me to send short messages for free. Nowadays, my cellular phone's most used function is short messaging, which makes up the largest portion of my phone bill too, sadly. That could probably be the case for any one. Short messages are booming the mobile communication business; the number of short messages sent increased by a factor of 20 from 1997 to 1998. The reasons are evident: it is relatively cheap, fast, convenient and easy, also my 70-year old grandmother is short messaging. New applications developed, which short messages can be used for, guarantee the popularity of SMS and the growth in their volume. From users point of view, fast? How long a time do you need to key in 160 characters, the maximum size of a sms? Not too long, if you compare it with making a phone call and talking the matter through with your counterpart. It is a fast to way to send a short notice to somebody; or just to keep in touch with your friends abroad. It does not depend on the time of the day. Short message is already adapting some features of email. Easy and convenient? Most of us are able to key in the necessary characters and select the send function followed by the number. Convenience is a matter of opinion; not everybody likes to try to hit the small keys on the keyboard. Luckily, some mobile phone companies have developed also relief for this. (see Nokia and Ericsson) Cheap? Definitely! Imagine the amount of information, which you can put in one sentence. In most outstanding cases, a friend of mine replaced a normal one-hour phone call to her parents with one single short message! It is not necessary to show how much money she saved. While staying abroad and using a local operator, thanks to roaming contracts signed between national operators, to organize my mobile communications, cheapness is very clear. Usually, one is short messaging across countries at a price relatively close to price paid at home, sometimes even lower. Receiving phone calls and making international calls can easily cost ten times more than home. One is capable of sending and receiving short messages in almost all countries where your national operator has roaming contracts. Roaming contracts exist in almost every country where you could assume a GSM network to exist. Let us take few counties as an example; let us choose Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia because they are neighboring countries, on very different stages in terms of national economy and far enough from Finland (our home country) to make phone calls under roaming contract expensive. In Singapore, the cost of receiving phone calls is around FIM 10,00 pro minute compared to sending short messages at FIM 0,30 pro message. Depending on your Finnish operator (Sonera and Radiolinja), you may choose between two operators, both providing the short message service. In Malaysia, the differences between roaming partners are quite significant; received phone calls costing roughly between FIM 10,00 and FIM 13,00. The price of a short message varies between FIM 0,20 and 1,90. In Indonesia then, the prices lay around FIM 11,00 a minute for received phone calls and around FIM 0,70 for a sent short message. Not all operators in Malaysia are providing the service to send short messages, whereas in Singapore, one might find out surprising rules; e.g. one cannot send short messages to a phone, which uses another operator than yours. Based on these prices, one is capable to send 10 short messages for the price of a one-minute long received phone call! That is up to everybody herself, which way of communicating is more effective for her personal use. However, no wonder short messages are booming the industry! |
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Jaakkola, Riikka Liu, Jing Wikström, Leo Shaimi, Abdehalk |