Features
Billions of text messages are sent everyday. SMS (Short Message Service) is a contemporary phenomenon based on the increased use and necessity of the mobile/cellular phone. In the early 1980’s visionaries saw the potential and begun the process of standardizing wireless communication.
The GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) was developed to allow mobile communication across multiple platforms throughout Europe. The European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT) created the Groupe Special Mobile, which became known as the GSM, with the objective of creating a standardized system. Working with the European Telecommunications Standards Institute the GSM and SMS standards were developed. The 3GPP is now responsible for the Standards further development and maintenance. The system that was created, quickly became the most widely used standard with 2 billion people on the system. The wide use of a standard meant that roaming was made extremely easy. Visit this site for maps of where you can roam with your GSM compatible cellphone.
SMS is a technology that facilitates the sending and receiving of messages between mobile phones. Short Message Service is self defining: it is a message with up to 160 characters at 7-bit encoding for Latin characters, and 70 characters at 16-bit Unicode encoding for non-Latin characters. Each transmission is capable of containing a 140 bytes. Though that is not a tremendous amount of information that can be sent, the information is able to be sent in Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Hindi and Korean. SMS can also handle binary data, such as pictures, ringtones, logos, wallpapers, animations and business cards. It is also supported by a 100% of GSM mobile phones.
EMS (Enhanced Messaging Service) is an application-level extension of SMS. A SMS message is unable to transmit rich-media content –pictures, animations and melodies- so EMS was developed as a response to this SMS limitation. EMS allows the user to control certain font features, but is limited in this use by the inability of available handheld wireless components to support certain EMS features. EMS is also limited because it is not nearly as widely supported as SMS. This limitation greatly effects its use worldwide.
News
South African Firm Uses SMS to Cut Costs
A South African company that teaches English has adopted SMS best practices to cut costs, increase productivity, and help people learn across the globe.... More
SMS for the Hearing Impaired
The deaf and hard-of-hearing community is estimated to be 10% of the world’s population and thus make up a sizeable populace with specific needs that operators and technologies have only recently begun to target in the past few years.... More
SMS Innovation and the Smart Home
SMS is a technology that has been around for years and has been mainly used as a communication device. But now that many individuals are purchasing smart phones, many companies are starting to adapt their business around the idea that SMS is an effective tool that can be used for more than texting.... More
SMS and the 2008 Election
Over three-quarters of Americans are estimated to own cell phones and each month there are over 15 billion text messages sent within the country. With these facts in mind, it’s no wonder that companies and organizations have begun to realize the benefit of exploiting SMS as a means of profit and promotion.... More
People and Business
The first company that caught our attention was Golden Pages Ltd. It is a company that was founded in 1968. Golden Pages start was in a Yellow Pages comparable model. It was repositioned into the internet market, becoming Israel’s first email provider. In 2004 the Markstone Capital Group, a private equity fund the was the founded by Ron Lubash, Amir Kess, and Elliott Broidy, purchased this 40 year old company. Please visit the hyperlinks to read more about the developments concerning these organizations.... More
