Network firms want to make text messaging pay, writes Nick
Langley
What is it?
The boom in text messaging using Short Message Service (SMS)
surprised no one more than the mobile phone companies. Although SMS
messages are cheaper than voice calls, text messaging is used as
well as, not instead of, voice. Network operators are trying to
raise additional revenue through advertising, data services and
games, providing work for in-house developers and third-party
application and content providers.
Where did it originate?
SMS was part of the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM)
standard from the outset. The first SMS messages were sent in 1991,
but for years SMS languished, except for some lacklustre attempts
to push SMS-based data services at business people.
SMS took off with the arrival of pre-pay mobile phones. SMS was not
supposed to be part of the pre-pay package, and billing systems
were not set up to deal with it, so for a while texting was free.
Usage dropped sharply when charging was introduced, then climbed
rapidly once again.
What is it for?
It is a youth-led phenomenon, not least because it enables people
to communicate in venues with high levels of background noise, and
because adults find it hard to use and understand. It should be an
advertiser's dream: SMS users have more money than responsibilities
and can be targeted directly via the networks. But apart from a few
local pilots, SMS advertising has not happened yet.
What makes it special?
SMS went through 1,000% growth in the year Wap hype hit its height.
It is a kind of anti-Wap: limited to 160 characters, each character
requiring multiple presses on a keypad so small a marmoset would
find it fiddly. But overcoming these limitations requires a
creativity and playfulness that advertisers and games providers are
hoping to engage with.
Where is it used?
Wherever you can get a signal.
How difficult is it?
SMS is a simple store-and-forward technology: the message goes from
the sender's handset to the network's SMS centre, which forwards it
to the recipient. In theory, SMS messages can be concatenated -
multiple messages combined - but users and developers alike have
chosen to keep things simple.
GSM standards mandate the bare minimum to ensure SMS messages can
be sent and received irrespective of service provider or network.
The rest is up to application developers and toolkit providers. But
games providers and advertisers cannot use flashy graphics to
attract customers, so they must tell a compelling story in a few
words. The most successful entertainment applications have been
dating games and betting services.
Not to be confused with ...
The Sega Master System, a games console introduced in 1986, which
had features text games users in 2003 can only dream of.
What does it run on?
Texting has taken off fastest in Europe and Asia, where virtually
all mobile phones can use it. Compatibility problems between
networks have held it back in North and South America.
Few people know that ...
SMS is hacker-proof. As far as anyone knows, nobody has succeeded
in breaking into a text message.
What is coming up?
Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS). The mobile network operators
are hoping that photo messaging will have the same runaway success
as texting.
Rates of pay
You will probably need other wireless skills such as Sun's Java
2 Micro Edition, Wap or Symbian. Rates for developers vary hugely,
from £25,000 to more than twice as much.
Training
SMS training is available from mobile network operators and
handset providers (try
www.forum.nokia.com/Nokia_
Developer_Network). There are also plenty of free internet
tutorials, such as those at
www.mobilesms.com.