There are times when keying in an short message (text) is a hassle especially when done in a hurry and cannot give voice to your message. Most times text messages don’t convey your emotions which is frustrating most of the time. Besides, who wants to work with a keypad when you can speak right from your heart?
Significant disadvantages of text messaging include the time it takes to type out a message using the limited mobile phone keypad and the lack of emotion that only a voice can deliver. Many people resort to the cryptic computer-speak prevalent within computer messaging today, leaving a mobile user in receipt of these abbreviated messages at a disadvantage.
In a bid to bridge the gap, telecommunication companies have introduced Voice SMS or texting as part of the services on offer. Voice SMS is a feature/product that allows users to send voice messages to mobile phones using SMS in a non-intrusive way.
Voice SMS is a fast way to send a short message to another mobile subscriber that can be retrieved at the subscriber’s convenience. In that sense it’s similar to an SMS text message but a cheaper version. This is because there are no keystrokes to compose the message, you just talk.
When a Voice SMS is sent, an SMS text message is received saying “You have a Voice SMS. Click here to listen to your message.” One click and you’re listening to your new message via a human voice. In some implementations, it says “Dial *0* to listen to your message. That’s four clicks with the “Send” key, but it’s equally easy for users.
For example MTN’s and UTL Voice SMS services are based on pioneering Voice SMS technology from Kirusa, a leading vendor of Voice SMS and a leading developer of mobile value added services. The good thing about Voice SMS is that it is bolstered by additional innovative features like Scheduling and Dynamic Group Voice SMS.
Voice SMS allows the subscribers to send messages by voice, eliminating the need to type. It enables the subscribers to communicate faster, easier, and with added personal touch by conveying emotions, to their friends, relatives and colleagues. The Voice SMS facility has achieved vast acceptance across the globe for its benefits in surpassing the limitations of text messages.
For Information contact www.routesms.com
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Wap Push(Connect to the Mobile Web with SMS)
http://www.routesms.com/ has wap push service a addition to it's mobile marketing platform that allow brands, agencies, and small businesses, mobile advertisers, to send mobile site URLs, longer than 160 characters, embedded in a SMS or WAP PUSH and measure click through rate.
Adding SMS notification with embedded URLs has many advantages: you can reach your users wherever they are, provide links to detailed rich content, increase awareness of your mobile web offering, and drive additional traffic deep into your mobile web site.
-->The URL is subject to the same size limits as any other SMS message. Keeping the URL as short as possible is the key.
-->Measuring SMS to mobile web conversion
With Routesms Url service clients can now send mobile site URL embedded in a SMS and measure click through rate.
The API automatically converts embedded URL in the SMS message to tiny URL, which then can be tracked as End-Users click on the link. The clients can access mobile site click through report, including mobile number, from there enabled GPRS Connection
1. Shortens the URL, allowing businesses to send descriptive text along with the text message to give the user an idea as to what they will be viewing when they click the link.
2. Measure bulk SMS campaign effectiveness
For Information contact www.routesms.com
SMS spoofing
The GSM industry has identified a number of potential fraud attacks on mobile operators that are caused by abuse of SMS messaging services. The most serious of these threats is SMS Spoofing. SMS Spoofing occurs when a fraudster manipulates address information in order to impersonate a user that has roamed onto a foreign network and is submitting messages to the home network. Frequently, these messages are addressed to destinations outside the home network – with the home SMSC essentially being “hijacked” to send messages into other networks.
The only 100%-sure way of detecting and blocking spoofed messages is to screen incoming mobile originated messages to verify that the sender is a valid subscriber and that the message is coming from a valid and correct location. This can be implemented by adding an intelligent routing function to the network that can query originating subscriber details from the HLR before the message is submitted for delivery. This kind of intelligent routing function is beyond the capabilities of legacy messaging infrastructure.
Introduction to SMS and SMS Messaging Services
The Short Message Service (SMS), as defined within the GSM digital mobile phone standard that is popular in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa and some parts of North America, has several unique features:
A single SMS can be up to 160 characters of text in length. Those 160 characters can comprise of words or numbers or an alphanumeric combination. Non-text based SMS' (for example, in binary format) are also supported.
SMS is a store and forward service, in other words, SMS' 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.
SMS features confirmation of message delivery. This means that unlike paging, users do not simply send an SMS 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 SMS has been delivered or not.
SMS' 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.
Ways of sending multiple SMS' 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 standards.
SMS History
SMS was an accidental success that took nearly everyone in the mobile industry by surprise. Few people predicted that this hard of use service would take off. There was hardly any promotion for or mention of SMS by network operators until after SMS started to be a success. SMS advertising went from showing business people in suits entering text messages to bright pink and yellow advertisements aimed at the youth markets that adopted SMS.
SMS was the triumph of the consumer - every generation needs a technology that it can adopt as its own to communicate with - and the text generation took up SMS. Paradoxically, it was because SMS was so very difficult to use that the young people said that they were going to overcome the man machine interface and other issues and use the service anyway. The fact that the entry barriers to learning the service were so high were an advantage because it meant that parents and teachers and other adult authority figures were unlikely, unable and unwilling to use the service.
A whole new alphabet emerged because SMS messages took a long time to enter and were quite abrupt as people attempted to say as much as possible with as few keystrokes. Abbreviations such as 'C U L8er' for 'See you later' sprung up for timesaving and coolness. The use of smileys to reduce the abruptness of the medium and to help indicate the mood of the person in a way that was difficult with just text became popular.
The introduction of prepay mobile tariffs in which people could pay for their airtime in advance and thereby control their mobile phone expenditure was the catalyst that accelerated the take up of SMS. The network operators were unable technically to bill prepay customers for the SMS they were using because the links between the prepay platform and the billing system and the SMS Centers were not in place. The network operators responded with silence- the prepay literature did not mention SMS at all even though the prepay phones supported the service. One thing that is certain is that in these days with the Internet revolution to spread information, the young people will identify loopholes like this. And they did. Suddenly, millions more SMS messages were being sent- with some individual mobile phone subscriptions accounting for thousands of SMS per month alone as they set up automated message generators. Network operators worked with their platform suppliers to try and sort this out and implement charging for SMS for prepay customers. Meanwhile SMS incubated and spread and people were using it because it cost nothing whereas carrying out the same transaction using voice clearly did cost. Eventually after a few months the network operators finally got their act together and managed to implement SMS charging for prepay users- such that they could decrement the prepay credit by the cost of an SMS message.
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PCS (Personal Communications Services) - an all-digital set of cellular services operating in the 1850-1990 MHz bands. PCS technologies include CDMA, TDMA, AND GSM.
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PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) - a small handheld device commonly used as a mobile computer or personal organizer. Many PDAs incorporate small keyboards, while others use touchscreens with handwriting recognition. Some of these devices have Internet capabilities, either through a built-in or add-on modem.
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Pocket PC (formerly Windows CE) - an upgraded version of Windows CE that offers greater stability and a new interface. Features include mobile Internet capabilities, an e-book reader, and handwriting recognition.
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Smartphone/Webphone - a mobile, digital telephone that has features not associated with traditional home or mobile phones. These features include Internet access, simple text messaging, and data services.
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SMS (Short Messaging Service) - originally part of the GSM system, it refers to any text messaging service available on digital mobile phones.
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TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) - divides cellular channels into three time slots, increasing data capacity. This lets multiple users or conversations to be carried on the same channel.
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Two-way paging/Interactive paging/Two-way Messaging - sending and receiving data over the Web, via the paging network.
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WAP (Wireless Access Protocol) - a set of standards that allows Web access on mobile devices. WAP is supported by most wireless networks and operating systems. It supports HTML and XML, but is designed for WML.
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Web Clipping - the process of pulling specific information from a web page so that it can be displayed on a webphone or PDA.
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Windows CE - a version of Windows designed to run on PDAs or other small devices. CE was renamed Pocket PC with the version 3.0 release.
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WML (Wireless Markup Language) - a language developed to control the presentation of web pages on mobile phones and PDA in the same way that HTML does for PCs. Part of the Wireless Access Protocol (WAP), WML is an open standard, and is supported by most mobile phones.
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XHTML - a reworking of HTML 4.0 designed to work as a application of XML. It allows anyone to create sets of markup tags for new purposes.
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XML (Extensible Markup Language) - a standard for creating expandable information formats that allow both the format and the data to be shared. XML is similar to HTML in that both use tags to describe the contents of a document. However, while HTML only describes how the data should be displayed or used, XML describes the type of data. This allows anyone who can interpret those tags to use the data they contain.
The WAP Forum was founded in 1997. The forum’s main aim was to bring together the various wireless technologies by a standardised protocol. In 2002 the WAP Forum was consolidated (along with many other forums of the industry) into OMA (Open Mobile Alliance), which covers virtually everything in future development of wireless data services.WAP 1.X The WAP 1.0 standard was released in April 1998 and described a complete software stack for mobile internet access.WAP version 1.1 was released in 1999.[5]. WAP 1.2, the final update of the 1.X series was released in June 2000.[6]. The most important addition in version 1.2 was WAP push.WAP Push
WAP Push Process WAP Push has been incorporated into the pecification to allow WAP content to be pushed to the mobile handset with minimum user intervention. A WAP Push is basically a specially encoded message which includes a link to a WAP address.WAP Push is specified on top of WDP; as such, it can be delivered over any WDP-supported bearer, such as GPRS or SMS.[9] In most GSM networks there are a wide range of modified processors, but GPRS activation from the network is not generally supported, so WAP Push messages have to be delivered on top of the SMS bearer.On receiving a WAP Push, a WAP 1.2 or later enabled handset will automatically give the user the option to access the WAP content. This is also known as WAP Push SI (Service Indication).The network entity that processes WAP Pushes and delivers them over an IP or SMS Bearer is known as a Push Proxy Gateway (PPG).
WAP 2.0
WAP 2.0 released in 2002 is a re-engineering of WAP using a cut-down version of XHTML with end-to-end HTTP (i.e., dropping the gateway and custom protocol suite used to communicate with it). A WAP gateway can be used in conjunction with WAP 2.0; however, in this scenario, it is used as a standard proxy server. The WAP gateway's role would then shift from one of translation to adding additional information to each request. This would be configured by the operator and could include telephone numbers, location, billing information, and handset information.
XHTML Mobile Profile (XHTML MP), the markup language defined in WAP 2.0, is made to work in mobile devices. It is a subset of XHTML and a superset of XHTML Basic. A version of cascading style sheets (CSS) called WAP CSS is supported by XHTML MP
Protocol design lessons from WAP
The original WAP was a simple platform for access to web-like WML services and e-mail using mobile phones in Europe and the SE Asian regions and continues today with a considerable user base. The later versions of WAP were primarily for the United States region and was designed for a different requirement - to enable full web XHTML access using mobile devices with a higher specification and cost, and with a higher degree of software complexity.
There has been considerable discussion about whether the WAP protocol design was appropriate. Some have suggested that the bandwidth-sparing simple interface of Gopher would be a better match for mobile phones and Personal digital assistants (PDAs).[19]
The initial design of WAP was specifically aimed at protocol independence across a range of different protocols (SMS, IP over PPP over a circuit switched bearer, IP over GPRS, etc). This has led to a protocol considerably more complex than an approach directly over IP might have caused.
Most controversial, especially for many from the IP side, was the design of WAP over IP. WAP's transmission layer protocol, WTP, uses its own retransmission mechanisms over UDP to attempt to solve the problem of the inadequacy of TCP over high packet loss networks.
Multimedia Messaging Service, or MMS, is a telecommunications standard for sending messages that include multimedia objects (images, audio, video, rich text). MMS is an extension of the SMS standard, allowing longer message lengths and using WAP to display the content. Its most popular use is sending photographs from camera-equipped handsets, although it is also popular as a method of delivering ringtones as well. The standard is developed by the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA), although during development it was part of the 3GPP and WAP groups.MMS messages are delivered in a fashion almost identical to SMS, but any multimedia content is first encoded and inserted into a text message in a fashion similar to sending a MIME e-mail. MMS defines a subset of MIME content formats in the MMS Message Encapsulation specification. The message is then forwarded to the carrier's MMS store and forward server, the "MMS relay". If the receiver is on another carrier, the relay forwards the message to the recipient's carrier using the Internet.[1]
Once it reaches the correct MMS relay for the receiver, the content is extracted and sent to a temporary storage server (often the same process as the relay) with an HTTP front-end. An SMS "control message" containing the URL of the content is then sent to the recipient's handset to trigger the receiver's WAP browser to open and receive the content from the embedded URL. Several other messages are exchanged to indicate status of the delivery attempt.[2]
Some installations also include a conversion service that will attempt to modify the multimedia content into a format suitable for the receiver. This is known as "content adaptation".
E-mail and web-based gateways to the MMS (and SMS) system are common. On the reception side, the content servers can typically receive service requests both from WAP and normal HTTP browsers, so delivery via the web is simple. For sending from external sources to handsets, most carriers allow MIME encoded message to be sent to the receiver's phone number with a special domain.
The original SMS system was developed as part of the GSM family of standards, able to deliver messages of up to 160 characters. At the time, 2G GSM was in the process of evolving into the 2.5G GPRS of roughly double the performance. A short 160 character limit no longer made sense, so the "Third-Generation Partnership Program" (3GPP) proposed extending the existing SMS standard to allow messages of any length. Additionally, they proposed adding MIME support for file attachments, and real multimedia support. However, modifying display systems to handle any sort of media format was a more difficult problem, so 3GPP partnered with the WAP standards process to produce MMS.
Since then, MMS has been deployed worldwide and across both GSM/GPRS and networks. The first commercial MMS launched worldwide was in March 2002 by Telenor, in Norway, using Acision infrastructure. MMS remains part of the 3G networks as well and will almost certainly be retained in the 4G networks currently being developed. Both 3GPP and 3rd Generation Partnership Project 2 3GPP2 have delegated the development of the Stage 3 Technical Realizations to the Open Mobile Alliance OMA, a standards organization focused on specifications for the mobile wireless networks.There are some interesting challenges with MMS that do not exist with SMS:
Handset configuration can cause problems sending and receiving MMS messages.
* Content adaptation: Multimedia content created by one brand of MMS phone may not be entirely compatible with the capabilities of the recipients' MMS phone. In the MMS architecture, the recipient MMSC is responsible for providing for content adaptation (e.g., image resizing, audio codec transcoding, etc.), if this feature is enabled by the mobile network operator. When content adaptation is supported by a network operator, its MMS subscribers enjoy compatibility with a larger network of MMS users than would otherwise be available.
* Distribution lists: Current MMS specifications do not include distribution lists nor methods by which large numbers of recipients can be conveniently addressed, particularly by content providers, called Value-added service providers (VASPs) in 3GPP. Since most SMSC vendors have adopted FTP as an ad-hoc method by which large distribution lists are transferred to the SMSC prior to being used in a bulk-messaging SMS submission, it is expected that MMSC vendors will also adopt FTP.
* Bulk messaging: The flow of peer-to-peer MMS messaging involves several over-the-air transactions that become inefficient when MMS is used to send messages to large numbers of subscribers, as is typically the case for VASPs. For example, when one MMS message is submitted to a very large number of recipients, it is possible to receive a delivery report and read-reply report for each and every recipient. Future MMS specification work is likely to optimize and reduce the transactional overhead for the bulk-messaging case.
* Handset Configuration: Unlike SMS, MMS requires a number of handset parameters to be set. Poor handset configuration is often blamed as the first point of failure for many users. Service settings are sometimes preconfigured on the handset, but mobile operators are now looking at new device management technologies as a means of delivering the necessary settings for data services (MMS, WAP, etc.) via over-the-air programming (OTA).
Enhanced Messaging Service (EMS), is a cross-industry collaboration between Samsung, Ericsson, Motorola, Siemens and Alcatel, among others. It is an application-level extension to Short Message Service (SMS) for cellular phones available on GSM, TDMA and CDMA networks.
EMS is an intermediate technology, between SMS and MMS, providing some of the features of MMS. EMS is a technology that is designed to work with existing networks, but may ultimately be made obsolete by MMS.
An EMS enabled mobile phone can send and receive messages that have special text formatting (such as bold or italic), animations, pictures, icons, sound effects and special ring tones.
EMS messages that are sent to devices that do not support it will be displayed as SMS messages, though they may be unreadable due to the presence of additional data that cannot be rendered by the device. EMS messages cannot typically be sent between subscribers of different mobile phone carriers, as they will frequently be dropped by the inter-carrier network or by the receiving carrier. EMS never really picked up due to interoperability limitations and in fact very few operators ever introduced it.
EMS is defined in 3GPP Technical Specification 23.040, "Technical realization of Short Message Service (SMS)".
On June 9th 2008, the CTIA organization officially released [1] an RFI for Enhanced Messaging implementation with focus on Group Messaging. The EM term in this context loosely refers to an improved Mobile Messaging product that combines the simplicity of Text Messaging with the successful rich features of the Internet's Instant Messaging. Other references to this new service have been made as "SMS 2" or "Instant SMS
Mobile VAS in India“.
Here are key excerpts:
Subscriber base:
* Population: 1.112 billion
* Fixed Subs : 39.41 million (Oct 2007)
* Mobile Subs : 217.14 million (Oct 2007)
* Internet Subs : 9.22 million (Jun 2007)
* Broadband Subs :2.67 million (Sept 2007)
Of the mobile subscribers:
* Prepaid connection comprise 85% of total subscriber base (expected to increase to 90%); and over 95% of new additions.
* By the end of 2010, the mobile teledensity will be almost 44% with 497 mn subscribers (driven by semi-urban and rural areas)
VAS in India:Past, Present and Future
* VAS constitutes 7% of of total telecom revenue for Indian operators.
* SMS consituted 55% of VAS revenue in 2006 [P2P/A2P/P2A, A = Application, P=Person), the growth was majorly driven by reality shows like Indian Idol/Kelloggs/KBC etc.
* Digital music (including CRBT and ringtones) constitutes 35% of VAS revenue.
* CAGR of 44% (2007 – 2010), VAS revenues will reach USD 2,744 mn (926mn $ by 2007): This is dependent on several factors like regulatory (e.g. number portability) and non-regulatory factors.
o Growth acceleration will begin in 2009, as various challenges are overcome, size of mature user base increases, and telco focus on high end user VAS heightens
* Bollywood and Cricket is the killer content - though no significant investment has gone beyond developing local apps or even content/services.
* Revenue share between telcos & content providers / aggregators is 70:30, substantially more skewed in favor of telco than in other countries - further aggravated by lack of payment mechanisms.
* SMS/IVR/Music downloads/Internet Apps/Search will see an upsurge; limited growth of UGC and mCommerce
* Almost half of Indians use ULCH (Ultra Low Cost Handsets)
Entities in VAS Value chain
* Content/Application Owner - cos. like saregama/mauj/Rajshri who develop coyrighted content
* Aggregator - aggregates content like games/wallpapers/ringtones and distributes it to suit customer needs [players : mauj, hungama mobile, indiatimes mobile etc]
* software developer – develops applications (like payment/games/middleware etc.) for mobile VAS [players - mchek/July systems/webaroo/affle etc]
* Technology Enabler – provides the platform that plugs into telco networks and acts like a bridge between aggregator and telcos [players include OnMobile, cellnext. mauj etc]
Operators still dominate the revenue sharing arrangement in VAS [Of the amount paid by end users, 60-70% is kept by operator, aggregator gets 20-25% and content app/owner gets 10-15% of the revenue]
Challenges:
* Lack of content localization
* Shortage of spectrum
* Slow adoption of GPRS mobiles (only 6.1 mn GPRS users compared to 200 mn overall subs)
Future VAS trends:
* Location Based Services
* Mobile Music update will increase with better bandwidth
* Migration to 3G will result in increased ARPU
* Local content is on the rise – regional/rural IVR seen as a major opportunity (see our earlier coverage of Ubona)
* Mobile commerce doesn not look too promising (India is still a cash and cheque country)
* IVR will see large scale adoption, especially in rural areas.
* Mobile E-Mail will primarily be driven by enterprises
* Stocks on mobile will see an uptake
The current state of VAS can be candidly summed in one sentence “Novelty of VAS on mobile is short-lived and innovation is the key to success which means technology companies like will have to increase their investments into R&D”
What’s your take?
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