Introduction
1. What is SMS?
Technology, today, is moving towards the future of the wireless web. Mobile devices such as palmtops, handhelds, and cellular phones are becoming all the rage. People want these devices to do everything from access their e-mail accounts, to utilize the Internet, to access personal and corporate information.
One type of service that is available today is a technology called SMS (Short Messaging Service). The Short Message Service (SMS) is the is the technology that allows to send and receive text messages to and from mobile telephones, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and personal computers.
SMS is a type of an Instant Messaging (IM) type of communications service and it enables users to exchange messages in real time with other users. Users can can use this technology and communicate with each other by typing with a PC, wireless device, cell phone, PDA or other Internet appliance/device. They can also use a combination of these devices to communicate. PC users can send instant messages back and forth across the Internet to each other. Cell-phone users can use the SMS to send short messages to other cell-phone users. Even retailers can use SMS technology to alert users of important information delivered directly to cell phones. And corporations can use any number of instant-message techniques to communicate directly with customers, vendors and employees.
2. History:
SMS was created as part of the GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication) Phase 1 standard. The first short message is believed to have been sent in December 1992 from a Personal Computer (PC) to a mobile phone on the Vodafone GSM network in the UK. Developers initially envisaged SMS as a tool for voice mail notification - implicitly as a pager but in several countries there was significant early growth as many people used the technology for person to person messaging.
3. What is GSM?
GSM stands for Global Systems for Mobile Communication. It is a digital system, which is what allows SMS features to exist.
4. Technical Details:
To store information, the mobile device is fitted with a SIM (Subscriber Identification Module) card which is a plastic card that, when placed in the back of a mobile device, stores various types of information.
SMS is essentially similar to paging, but SMS messages do not require the mobile phone to be active and within range, as they will be held for a number of days until the phone is active and within range. SMS messages are transmitted within the same cell or to anyone with roaming capability. Messages may be transmitted using an SMS gateway which is a web site that lets one enter an SMS message to someone within the cell served by that gateway or acts as an international gateway for users with roaming capability.
To use the Short Message Service, users need the relevant subscriptions and hardware, specifically:
· a subscription to a mobile telephone network that supports SMS; it should be connected to one of the GSM networks.
· SMS use enabled for that user (which is given by mobile network operators).
· a mobile phone that is SMS-enabled (which means that the device must have SMS technology built into it to access and utilize SMS).
· knowledge of how to send or read a short message using their specific model of mobile phone.
· a destination to send a short message to, or receive a message from. This is usually another mobile phone but may be a fax machine, PC or Internet address.
Presently, GSM allows for SMS messages to be sent from point-to-point, or in a cell-broadcast mode -
1. A point-to-point SMS message is where a user sends a message to another subscriber in their service. Once their message is sent, an acknowledgement of receipt is provided to the sender.
2. Cellbroadcast mode, or point-to-omnipoint, SMS messages are those such as traffic updates or news updates that are sent by services to multiple subscribed users within a given cell area.
5. Unique Features:
The SMS, as defined within the GSM digital mobile phone standard has several unique features:
1. A single short message can be up to 160 characters of text in length when Latin alphabets are used and 70 characters in length when non-Latin alphabets such as Arabic and Chinese are used. Those 160 characters can comprise of words or numbers or an alphanumeric combination. Non-text based short messages (for example, in binary format) are also supported. These are used for ringtones and logos services.
2. SMS is a store and forward service, in other words, short messages are not sent directly from sender to recipient, but always via an SMS Center instead. Each mobile telephone network that supports SMS has one or more messaging centers to handle and manage the short messages.
3. SMS features confirmation of message delivery. This means that unlike paging, users do not simply send a short message and trust and hope that it gets delivered. Instead the sender of the short message can receive a return message back notifying them whether the short message has been delivered or not.
4. Short messages can be sent and received simultaneously with GSM voice, Data and Fax calls. This is possible because whereas voice, Data and Fax calls take over a dedicated radio channel for the duration of the call, short messages travel over and above the radio channel using the signaling path. As such, users of SMS rarely if ever get a busy or engaged signal as they can do during peak network usage times.
5. Ways of sending multiple short messages are available. SMS concatenation (stringing several short messages together) and SMS compression (getting more than 160 characters of information within a single short message) have been defined and incorporated in the GSM SMS system’s standards.
6. SMS Applications:
A. Consumer Applications:
The vast majority of SMS usage is accounted for by consumer applications. The main applications, which make up almost 90% of a network’s total SMS traffic being accounted for, by the applications, are:
# Simple Person To Person Messaging:
Mobile phone users use SMS to communicate with each other routinely. Typically, such person to person messaging is used to say hello or prompt someone for something or arrange a meeting or tell someone something. Such messages are usually originated from the mobile phone keypad.
When the information to be communicated is short or it would take too long to have a full conversation or someone is traveling overseas or not available to take a voice call, SMS is an ideal messaging medium. For example, network operators typically charge the same to send a short message to someone in the same room as they do to someone traveling overseas with their mobile phone.
Because short messages are proactively delivered to mobile phones that are typically kept in the user's pocket and can be stored for later reference, SMS is often more convenient than email or Data to communicate amongst distributed and mobile groups of people.
Thus, users often find that SMS is a useful way of exchanging information and keeping in touch with friends. This is particularly so when the recipient is also able to reply to messages for two-way communication. Hence, simple person to person messaging is popular with many young people. As such, simple person to person messaging generates a high volume of short messages.
# Voice And Fax Mail Notifications:
The most common use of SMS is for notifying mobile phone users that they have new voice or fax mail messages waiting. This is therefore the starting point for most mobile network operators and the first time that mobile phone users use SMS. Whenever a new message is dispatched into the mailbox, an alert by SMS informs the user of this fact.
Because SMS is already routinely used to alert users of new voice mail messages, this application is and will remain one of the largest generators of short messages.
# Unified Messaging
Currently, it is difficult to manage all the different kinds of messages that people get- they have to dial in and pick up emails, pick up their faxes from the fax machine, call in and listen to voice mail and so on. Unified messaging involves providing a single interface for people to access the various different kinds of messaging they use. Be the messages fax, voice mail, short messages, email or so on, they can be conveniently accessed from a single point in the most actionable form.
The user typically receives a short message notifying them that they have a new message in their unified messaging box. The short message often also includes an indication of the type of new message that has been deposited, such as fax, email or voice mail. Unified messaging is a convenient application that is likely to become mainstream in the future.
# Internet Email Alerts
By linking Internet email with SMS, users can be notified whenever a new email is received. The Internet email alert is provided in the form of a short message that typically details the sender of the email, the subject field and first few words of the email message.
Because of the high and increasing usage of Internet email to communicate globally, and the benefit from using SMS to notify mobile users about important new email messages, this is likely to be a fast growing and popular application for SMS.
# Chat
An emerging application for the Short Message Service is chat. Chat can be distinguished from general information services because the source of the information is a person with chat whereas it tends to be from an Internet site for information services. The "information intensity"- the amount of information transferred per message tends to be lower with chat, where people are more likely to state opinions than factual data.
SMS-based chat services are an emerging application area. Because SMS chat applications are high volume applications whereby one message submission leads to multiple message deliveries, expect this application to be a significant generator of short messages in the future.
# Information Services
The Short Message Service can be used to deliver a wide range of information to mobile phone users from share prices, sports scores, weather, flight information, news headlines, lottery results, jokes to horoscopes. Essentially, any information that fits into a short message can be delivered by SMS.
B. Corporate Applications:
Corporate applications that use the Short Message Service are currently few and far between. Most of the SMS messaging volumes are generated by consumer applications. The main ones based on SMS are:
# Corporate Email
The Short Message Service can be used to extend the use of corporate email systems beyond an employee's desk and office PC. With 40% of employees typically away from their desks at any one time, it is important for them to keep in touch with the office at all times. Corporate email notifications are similar to Internet email notifications. Users are given information such as the sender and subject of the email. Any emails of a business or personal nature that are sent to the corporate email address can be sent out over the wireless network.
# Mobile Commerce
Mobile commerce applications involve using a mobile phone for financial transaction purposes- this usually means making a payment for goods or transferring funds electronically. Transferring money between accounts and paying for purchases are mobile commerce applications. It is convenient to pay for purchases using SMS in this area.
# Customer Service
By providing mobile phone customers will information about their account, the Short Message Service can help to avoid the need for expensive person to person voice calls to customer service centers. In the customer service environment, SMS can help to deliver account status information, new service configuration and so on.
C. Other Applications:
# Vehicle Positioning
This application integrates satellite positioning systems that tell people where they are with SMS which lets people tell others where they are. The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a free-to-use global network of 24 satellites run by the US Department of Defense. Anyone with a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver can receive their satellite position and thereby find out where they are.
The Short Message Service is ideal for sending Global Positioning System (GPS) position information such as longitude, latitude, bearing and altitude. GPS information is typically about 60 characters in length, leaving room for other information such as the vehicle registration details, average speed from the tachometer and so on to be transmitted as part of the same short message. Because the position updates are automatically generated, mobile network operators find that vehicle positioning applications are amongst the leading generators of short messages.
# Remote Monitoring
The Short Message Service can be used to manage machines in a remote monitoring environment. This application provides people with valuable information from a remote location when an important event occurs that they need to know about. The information is automatically delivered electronically without having to constantly employ physical resources locally on the off chance that such an event occurs. Examples of remote monitoring applications include remote meter reading, sending computer system fault information to mobile phones and notifying companies about empty vending machines.
7. Why use SMS?
SMS is a very inexpensive method of communication. 160 characters take up as much room as a one-second voice call. Messages are delivered immediately (or when the phone is turned on). Like e-mail, they can also be reviewed or stored in your phone for as long as you wish. SMS messages can also be sent out to huge groups of people with the single press of a button.
Using the technology of Unified Messaing, SMS can take on a number of different message formats (including voice mail, e-mail and fax) and allows users to access them from their mobile device.
8. The Future of SMS - Multimedia Message Service (MMS):
It is a valid question to ask whether the Short Message Service (SMS) has a prosperous future ahead of it given that GSM is evolving to encompass high-speed packet data services such as GSM Packet Radio Service (GPRS) (See www.mobileGPRS.com). The world requires more and more Internet functionality from their mobile devices. But GSM was never designed to service text information. Using GSM for anything more than SMS would become a slow and cumbersome method and it would be more so for the large amounts of text such that the wireless Internet would provide. Hence a new technology, called GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) which is believed to support this new demand, is invented. GPRS would allow the sending of Internet information through mobile devices at a high speed that is believed to be up to 100,000 bits per second.
Hence it is believed that SMS will be used through to the year 2005 at least, since the mobile phones, infrastructure, specifications, market development and awareness are in place today. Over time, as users connect to networks that offer more advanced data services and buy mobile terminals that support them, they will find it more convenient to receive all their CHOSEN emails rather than only a notification by SMS. They will continue to use SMS for some applications - the underlying bearer will be mixed and matched according to the application and its importance to the user. SMS could be used automatically when roaming for example due to the advantages of store and forward when in a different time zone. Non-urgent emails could be sent by SMS for users to decide whether to forward the entire message. Urgent emails get sent immediately using packet data. By supporting multiple standards and bearer services, the Wireless Application Protocol anticipates this multiple service world. Essentially, in 3GSM, SMS will not be a standalone service but part of multimedia messaging. Different applications will use different bearer services- bearers will be mixed and matched depending on characteristics of application and mobile environment.
The runaway success of the SMS technology is convincing the phone operators and manufacturers that the big future profits are in data transfer rather than voice. They will extend the devices that can accept this technology to watches, keyrings, the home and even the car. There was talk about an intelligent alarm clock linked to the Internet that will monitor the weather, traffic transport schedules and wake you up accordingly.
If nowadays we are used to send message to our friends via mobile phone in text format with the capacity of 160 characters, we will shortly able to send message to friends in the form of event recording in video format. It is because SMS will be sophisticated with its new generation, which is called Multimedia Messaging Services or MMS.
9. Conclusion
SMS is technology that contributed varied beneficial services to the world and is used in different applications. These applications include business and trade, ebanking, as well as social and spiritual applications.
Indeed, mobile phones have made tremendous contributions to society and to mankind. From its inception as a tool of communication used only by deaf or hearing impaired individuals, SMS or Short Messaging Service had turned into a very powerful means of communication. Also, SMS had made the world smaller and much better as people rapidly gain access to mobile phones. Moreover, it created a new way of system of communication all together.
Indeed, mobile phones have made tremendous contributions to society and to mankind. From its inception as a tool of communication used only by deaf or hearing impaired individuals, SMS or Short Messaging Service had turned into a very powerful means of communication. Also, SMS had made the world smaller and much better as people rapidly gain access to mobile phones. Moreover, it created a new way of system of communication all together.
10. Reference
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