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SMS
This page looks at SMS - variously identified as Short
Message System, Short Messaging Service or texting.
It covers -
introduction
The Short Message Service (SMS) is the ability to send
and receive text messages to and from mobile
telephones, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and
personal computers. The text can be comprised of words,
numbers or an alphanumeric combination of the two. Each
short message is limited to 160 characters when using
Latin alphabets and 70 characters using non-Latin alphabets
such as Arabic, Korean and Mandarin.
Unlike Australia, parts of the EU and Asia - notably Japan
and Hong Kong - Short Message System (SMS) services are
only now achieving significant market penetration in North
America.
In Australia and New Zealand SMS took off after 2001,
driven by the professional and under-20s cohorts before
being embraced by most mobile users.
SMS technology
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 late 1992 from
a personal computer to a mobile phone on Vodafone's UK
GSM network.
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 particular
demographics (kids, professionals, drug dealers) used
the technology for person to person messaging.
Most SMS traffic involves consumers sending text from
a mobile phone keypad rather than businesses messaging
to potential clients from a computer; some network operators
report that 90% of total SMS traffic relates to simple
person-to-person messaging.
That is in line with Andrew Odlyzko's 2001 paper
Content is Not King, arguing that connectivity
- particularly messaging - is the 'killer app'.
A broader perspective is provided by papers in Perpetual
contact: Mobile communication, private talk, public performance
(Cambridge: Cambridge Uni Press 2002) edited by James
Katz & Mark Aakhus, Hans Geser's 2002 paper
Towards a Sociological Theory of the Mobile Phone
and The Inside Text: Social, Cultural and Design
Perspectives on SMS (New York: Springer 2005) by
Rich Harper, Leysia Palen & Alex Taylor.
An analysis of national variations in SMS use within the
EU is provided in a paper
by Zbigniew Smoreda & Frank Thomas on Use of SMS
(1) in Europe. Insights into the youth demographic
are provided by Marge Eldrige & Rebecca Grinter's
2001 Studying Text Messaging in Teenagers (PDF)
and Grinter's 2001 y do tngrs luv 2 txt msg?
For Australia see the thin Australian Mobile Phone
Lifestyle Index released
in 2005 to "address the information deficit regarding
mobile phone usage in Australia".
Various proprietary Instant Messenger (IM) or Instant
Messaging Systems (IMS) have been promoted by individual
internet service providers - notably AOL
- and software developers. Those schemes are essentially
PC-based (ie not mobile phone to mobile) and as we have
noted in later pages of this profile are generally incompatible,
with many US consumers accordingly using several services.
traffic
Uptake of SMS in the US has echoed Australia, New Zealand
and Europe, where growth was explosive but subsequently
levelled off to around 15-20% per year.
A December 2003 report
by the Australian Communications Authority indicated that
around four billion SMS messages were sent in Australia
during 2002-03, an average of 294 messages per mobile
phone (up 44% on the preceding year). There were roughly
14.3 mobile phones at that time (three million more than
fixed line connections), with the ACA estimating that
SMS was used by 57% of households and 40% of SMEs.
That is consistent with uptake offshore. SMS traffic on
the Vodafone UK network, for example, hit 600,000 messages
per month in January 1998, climbed to 22 million in May
1999 and reached over 257 million messages per month in
September 2001. Mobilespring.com claims that in mid-2002
the average daily number of messages sent in the UK was
45 million. It forecast an annual total of around 150
billion messasges in the US by 2004. UK mobile phone users
sent 2.13 billion messages during March 2004, despite
expectations that the growth of SMS traffic would slow
as mobile phone ownership reached saturation levels. In
December 2005 the Mobile Data Association announced that
the number of messages in the UK during November was 2.8
billion.
The GSM Association had earlier claimed that monthly SMS
traffic in the EU mid-2000 was around
| nation |
million
messages |
Germany
Italy
Finland
UK
Norway
Sweden
Portugal
lFrance
Spain
Denmark
Belgium
Greece |
200
150
75
70
70
70
60
60
60
50
25
15 |
In
Australia the 2001 annual report (PDF)
from Telstra claimed that 70 million SMS messages were
sent each month by its subscriber base: 65% were one off
messages and the others involved an exchange of an average
of four messages. Optus' report
suggested that its subscribers were sending around 65
million messages per month in March 2001. SMS traffic
at both telcos was up by 100% over the previous year.
By mid-2003 SMS traffic on the Telstra and Optus networks
had risen to 250 million per month. In the UK it is reported
that SMS traffic accounts for between 7% and 9% of Vodafone's
revenue.
There is recurrent commercial interest in use of SMS to
deliver free or subscription-based information, ranging
from advertising (the SMS version of spam
is fondly known as speam) to financial data, sports scores,
flight information, weather and news headlines, jokes
and horoscopes. Essentially, any information that can
be expressed as a short text can be delivered by SMS.
One example is the How to Make Money on SMS report
from Danish telecommunications specialist StrandConsult.
The October 2001 Mobinet study (PDF)
from EDS subsidiary AT Kearney reported that SMS was belatedly
making a breakthrough among the middle aged (and middle
class) mobile phone users in the EU and the US. Globally
SMS use grew by 10% throughout 2001, with the highest
growth among the 'post-35' cohort. Among those age 35
to 54 SMS use grew by 20%; in both the 55-64 and 65+ categories
it grew by 14%.
The GSM Association suggests that 15 billion SMS text
messages were sent during December 2000, with 100 billion
sent during 2000 and predicted 2001 total of 200 billion
mark worldwide, with monthly global SMS figures of 25
billion. That is a lot of 'ringme', 'lovu', 'yes', 'iw2hybabs'
[I Want To Have Your Babies] and 'no'.
Mobilespring somewhat problematically claims that 1% of
UK subscribers have proposed marriage by SMS. Software
vendor Tegic claimed in 2005 that 2% of US adults proposed
marriage via text, with 2% breaking up by SMS compared
to 13% of Italians and 12% of Chinese subscribers, figures
that we suspect reflect sampling and questionnaire issues.
The GSM Association also claims that the average SMS traffic
per GSM customer has risen from 0.4 text messages in 1995
to a monthly figure of around 35 messages in 2000, with
UK users generating 756 million text messages in December
2000 (growth of around 300% pa), compared to Germans with
1.8 billion text messages.
However, there is significant disagreement about figures
and their interpretation. In the UK the Mobile Data Association
(MDA)
reported that the number of mobile text messages declined
by around 100 million (roughly 12%) in the first quarter
of 2001.
The slump was attributed to increased telecommunication
charges - someone has to pay for the phone companies'
1990s adventures, and who
better than the customers - rather than boredom. A year
later the MDA pointed to a recovery, claiming that 1.4
billion text messages were sent in the UK in January 2002.
The GSM Association refrained from attributing the political
upheaval in the Philippines to SMS but notes that initial
introduction of free SMS (with a monthly subscription
fee) generated over 18 million messages a day. For a view
of 'people power = SMS' see Vicente Rafael's
paper Generation Text: the Cell Phone & the
Crowd in Recent Philippine History. In the Philippines
and elsewhere some demographics have been price-sensitive.
Australian charges for SMS have continued to climb, in
contrast to Singapore where - depending on the particular
plan - texting is free across all the three providers
for up to up to 300 messages each month.
In Japanese mobile phone giant NTT DoCoMo
announced mid-2001 that subscribers on its wireless internet
i-mode network had climbed to 20 million, 100% growth
over a seven month period.
DoCoMo, something of an oddity, claimed that consumers
were serviced by 828 companies offering information on
i-mode and between 1,500 to 40,000 sites. The uncertainty
reflects questions about the compatibility of many of
the sites; only a thousand or so are formally recognised
by DoCoMo, which uses a proprietary standard.
Telecommunications analysts suggest that DoCoMo is now
gaining around a million users each month. The use made
of the service is more problematical. Many anecdotal reports
suggest that the service is overwhelmingly used for 'texting',
rather than 'surfing'. It is an 'always-on' packet-data
transmission system. Subscribers are charged according
to the volume of data they transmit, not the time spent
online.
A perspective is provided in a 2001 paper
from IBM on The Semi-Walled Garden: Japan's "i-mode
Phenomenon" and Jeffrey Funk's paper From Ticket
Reservations to Phones as Tickets and Money: New Applications
for the Mobile Internet in the Japanese Market (PDF).
bad news
Discontents about SMS encompass -
- unsolicited
advertising
- poor
practice by some operators, in particular providers
of 'free SMS' services
- infections
- bullying
and stalking
- perceptions
that use of SMS (like the net) somehow occurs outside
the law or beyond the reach of government agencies
Problems
with speam were noted above. The New York-based Wireless
Advertising Association (WAA),
established under the auspices of the US Interactive Advertising
Bureau (IAB)
but now somewhat at odds with its parent, has established
very basic and very voluntary standards for wireless advertising
on mobile phones.
Some users and consumer advocates have noted problems
with bad practice by operators of 'free SMS' services,
which have for example misused viral market techniques,
inhibited unsubscription and used allegedly misleading
terms & conditions. Some have compounded a public
relations problem by ineptly seeking to silence criticism
by high-profile bloggers such as Joi Ito.
In
Japan NTT has released a statement
confirming that 13 million of the mobile phones using
its I-Mode messaging service are susceptible to a virus,
delivered by email, that can take over the device's basic
functions. The virus directs the phone to dial the 110
emergency hotline number if the user opens the email,
to mass-dial random numbers or freeze the phone's functions.
The virus forms part of the email rather than an attachment.
A 2001 survey by Macromill
suggests around 77% of I-Mode users aged 20 to 40 had
received email from adult sites. The National Congress
of Parent-Teacher Associations of Japan has established
a committee to explore legal restrictions and otherwise
protect minors.
In late 2002 media attention turned to use of SMS for
bullying. Carrie Herbert of the UK Red Balloon Learner
Center for example commented that
Text
messaging is extremely powerful. It is devastating for
the children it affects. You don't know who did it but
you know it's someone you know. Someone who has your
number and knows personal stuff about you. You start
wondering if it was your best friend that did it. You
can't get away from it and two of our children got rid
of their phones because of this very problem.
addiction and other discontents
Given the enthusiasm with which parts of the therapy industry
and mass media have hyped 'email addiction', 'contact
addiction' and cyber-addiction
it is unsurprising that there have been claims of SMS
addiction.
It is a disorder that is not found in standard diagnostic
guides and apparently only involves brokers, advertising
executives and others who can afford a therapist and wear
the supposed disorder as a sign of distinction. For the
rest of us the 'addiction' is merely a sign of bad manners.
In the US and UK marketers have leveraged media coverage
by warning of 'text messager thumb' or text message injury
(TMI, aka tenosynovitis) - repetitive strain injury from
little keypads. Virgin Mobile for example published the
British Chiropractic Association's Textercises
(PDF)
on its 'Practicing Safe Text' site. Virgin's
Australian offshoot and the Chiropractors Association
of Australia similarly announced a 'National Day of Safe
Text' in July 2003.
The European Commission is conducting a two year Dare
to Say No/Osez Dire Non SMS campaign
to warn teens about the dangers of smoking; to smoking
and tobacco; the British Lung Foundation gained media
attention but perhaps had little effect after announcing
plans to send a mere 30,000 messages to warn young adults
that cannabis can be harmful. In 2004 the NSW Education
Department announced that sending threatening SMS - now
fashionable among bullies in school playgrounds - was
a ground for suspension or expulsion.
SMS has been criticised as promoting
'dogging' - "a practice which involves unprotected
sex with strangers in public parks" - and of course
it is used by drug dealers, terrorists and other people
for purposes other than reminders to pick up a litre of
milk on the way home.
and salvation
SMS has passed into popular culture as a mechanism for
salvation, whether that is in the form of discreetly sending
a message to a loved one - perfect if you are having an
affair (tho watch out for the memory) - or in calling
on rescuers.
In 2001 Rebecca Fyfe, stranded off the coast of Bali,
for example sent an SMS call for help to a friend in England.
He contacted the UK Coastguard, who contacted the Australian
coastguard, who called the Indonesian embassy in Canberra,
who called the Indonesian authorities, who sent out an
Indonesian navy gunboat to Fyfe's rescue.
Rachel Kelsey, stranded in the Swiss Alps by a blizzard,
similarly sent an SOS SMS to a friend in London, who contacted
a mountain rescue team in Zurich.
Less dramatically, in 2005 the Bible Society in Australia
launched what it claimed was the first SMS Bible. Verses
can be downloaded from the Society's site, with senders
charged standard SMS costs for sending messages via their
own carrier (typically costing around 25c within Australia).
Supposedly SMSing the entire Bible (30,173 verses) would
cost around $8,000. The project has been promoted as "a
way of making the Bible relevant in modern society"
People who go to church use mobile phones and watch
television and do modern things. The church needs to
relate to people in that way. The old days when the
Bible was only available within a sombre black cover
with a cross on it are long gone.
Traditionalists
may seek to eschew
IN
da bginnin God cre8d da heavens & da earth. Da earth
waz barren, wit no 4m of life
in
favour of the King James version.
We have yet to encounter an SMS version of The Communist
Manifesto, although in 2005 there was a vogue for
SMS condensations of literary texts.
Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet was for example
reduced to
FeudTween2hses--Montague&
Capulet. RomeoM falls_<3w/_ JulietC@mary Secretly
Bt R kils J's Coz&isbanishd. J fakes Death. As Part
of Plan2b-w/R Bt_leter Bt It Nvr Reachs Him. Evry1confuzd--
bothLuvrs kil Emselves.
SMS and the law
It is sometimes claimed that SMS is somehow 'outside the
law', presumably because some writers perceive that
-
the sender cannot be identified
-
there is no record to provide a basis for legal action
- legislation
simply does not cover SMS communication.
Such
perceptions are incorrect in principle and often in practice.
In Australia, for example, it is clear that particular
misuses are covered by a range of national and state/territory
legislation. 2005 saw arrest of a Matraville man on the
charge of using a carriage service to menace, harass or
cause offence following alleged use of SMS in the Cronulla
riots of that year. SMS traffic is not necessarily evanescent
or truly anonymous. Messages are stored and forwarded
by servers, with some networks retaining a copy for hours
or even a few days. Information from those servers - or
messages stored on a recipient's machine - has been recognised
in court proceedings.
There have thus been successful prosecutions in Australia,
the UK and US regarding use of SMS for sexual or other
harassment, stalking, extortion
and insider trading.
SMS is also covered by the Australian Spam Act 2003,
discussed in a detailed
separate profile elsewhere on this site.
next page (MMS)
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