Wireless

AppLab staff member Bridget Naggagga shows fishermen the response received to their weather query.

(Credit: Pia Raffler/IPA, Grameen Foundation)

In many parts of the world, electricity is a luxury. People spend hours gathering firewood to cook their dinners or warm their homes. In Uganda, only 10 percent of the population has electricity, the vast majority doesn't have microwave ovens, computers, or televisions. People don't have access to the latest information on disease outbreaks, weather forecasts, or soccer championships. But this may soon change.

More than a third of Uganda's population, about 10 million people, own a cell phone, and many more have access to these phones through family members and neighbors. Cell phones can be found in every desolate corner of the countryside, where 85 percent of the country's residents live. With the dire need to be connected, people go to great lengths to use cell phones, charging them with car batteries or solar chargers.

AppLab staff member Bridget Naggagga shows a market vendor her organization's mobile app prototype.

(Credit: Pia Raffler/IPA, Grameen Foundation)

In a place where cell phones could outnumber light bulbs, several nonprofits have begun thinking that the best way to reach the country's poor and get them much needed information is through their phones. The Grameen Foundation, a global nonprofit that helps the world's poor with financial services and technology solutions, has partnered with Google, telecommunications provider MTN Uganda, and several local nonprofits to develop and design mobile applications that let cell phone users get information via SMS text queries.

The goal is to improve the lives and livelihoods for Uganda's poor. "We had a clear vision of what we wanted to achieve," says David Edelstein, director of Grameen's Information and Communication Technology Innovation center. "We applied our expertise of being on the ground in Uganda and combined that with Google's expertise of disseminating information."

The type of information they're talking about can be anything from the nearest HIV/AIDS testing clinic, to agricultural advice on banana weevils, to the weather forecast. It is customized specifically for Ugandans and provides facts and resources that most people in the developed world take for granted. "Anyone with a phone can benefit from these services," says Edelstein, but they are "tailored to the needs of poor people."

The research for this project began a year and a half ago at the Application Laboratory, AppLab, which was set up in Kampala, Uganda, by the Grameen Foundation. It has done field research, quantitative needs assessments, prototyping, and focus group testing to figure out how to design and structure mobile applications that could deliver the information.

Since most cell phones in Uganda have only voice and SMS capabilities, the technology was built for SMS. A person texts a question to a specific code, which goes to the database built by AppLab, then using Google's algorithms, keywords are identified and the most suitable answer is sent back to the cell phone.

A farmer writes an SMS query to find out about a problem he has with yellowing banana leaves.

(Credit: The Grameen Foundation)

There are three specific services offered (each with their own code): Google SMS tips, Google SMS search, and Google trader. SMS tips is a question-and-answer service where people can get information on health problems, clinic locations, and agricultural advice, such as how to alleviate a fever or when the next rain is expected. SMS search works similarly by letting cell phone users text queries and receive answers in a Web search-like experience. And, trader is a "marketplace" application that lets buyers and sellers find each other so they can negotiate their products, which can be anything from dried fish to furniture.

Right now, AppLab has more than 50,000 unique queries in its database. In the beginning, when the database was smaller, people received nonsensical or ambiguous answers to their queries. So, AppLab created a "Fail-Over Center," which captures failed queries and transfers them to people to be analyzed and entered into the database. "We have a mechanism in place to strengthen and improve the quality of the system and quality of information we're disseminating," says Edelstein.

People who don't own cell phones, are illiterate, or don't speak English (the language used for the SMS answers), can go to "village phone operators," which were also set up through the Grameen Foundation. They are local merchants who speak English and know how to use the three different SMS services. There are 10,000 operators throughout Uganda and people can go to them for help on their own cell phones or can pay a small fee to use the operator's phone. The village phone operators receive a discount from MTN, which gives them an incentive to provide this help.

MTN Networks owns half the market share of mobile phones in Uganda and is the only provider offering these SMS services right now. For the next few months, there is a promotional period and all texts are free, which helps AppLab continue to build its database of queries. When the promotional period ends, MTN and Google have agreed to charge agriculture and health queries at half the cost of a normal SMS message, while all the other services will have the standard rates. Meanwhile, Google will be supporting an on-the-ground assessment to make sure these services are having a beneficial impact for the people of Uganda.

People without phones can find answers to questions through village phone operators, like this woman.

(Credit: The Grameen Foundation)

I got my first SMS spam message last week and it infuriated me.

The mortgage-related text message was more than just a nuisance, like e-mail spam is. It also was a strong indication of how marketers have managed to invade every private communication space consumers have.

And it was frustrating that I didn't know what to do about it. Being an AT&T customer, I tried to register on AT&T's site figuring I could learn what to do and take action there. Unfortunately, it kept telling me that it didn't recognize my password, so I had to call customer support. The support representative directed me to a different URL where I was able to log in and she tried to walk me through the site to the place where I could set spam-blocking settings, but was unable to because of some technical issue on her end. So she just changed the settings for me.

I called the four major U.S. wireless carriers to find out exactly what they suggest their customers do when they get SMS spam. Here is what they said, along with some other basic questions and answers people may have about mobile spam.

AT&T
Customers can block text messages or calls from a specific phone number on its Web site here, as well as restrict the sources of e-mail that reach your phone on this site. Customers can also reply to text messages by typing in "BLOCK" or "STOP" to prevent future messages from that sender, and call a customer service representative if further help is needed, said AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel.

Sprint
Sprint wants customers to call customer service to report all spam messages so the company can modify its spam-filtering technology to block the phone numbers that are sending it, said Sprint spokesman John Taylor. Customers should not reply to the messages, otherwise it verifies to the spammer that the phone number is valid, he said.

T-Mobile
Postpaid and FlexPay customers can create their own filters and block chargeable text messages, MMS (multi-media service) messages, instant messages, and e-mail from being sent to their phones by calling customer service, spokeswoman Cara Walker said.

Verizon
Customers can log into the site and sign up for Usage Controls ($4.99 a month) that allow them to block certain numbers from calling or sending text messages to the phone. And if customers text only with a few people they can create an alias address here for free and receive only text messages sent to that address, said Verizon spokeswoman Debra Lewis.

Verizon has filed eight to 10 lawsuits against SMS spammers over the past four to five years, and 20 lawsuits altogether involving telemarketers, she said.

What can I do to prevent unsolicited phone calls to my mobile phone?
To block spam phone calls, customers should register their mobile numbers with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's Do Not Call Registry.

What are the carriers doing to block spam?
The mobile service providers said they are using antispam filters and antivirus technology to protect against the different types of mobile spam. They did not want to go into too much detail as to what technologies they are using.

Why am I getting spam?
Some people may be inadvertently opting in to receive text messages when they sign up for other services with merchants. Many free ringtone download sites are used to harvest mobile numbers. Spammers also use auto-dialers that randomly generate numbers or try them sequentially. Because mobile phone numbers do not appear in public directories people should be careful who they share their numbers with. Be wary of sites that promise to remove numbers from spam lists because they are often set up to collect the numbers instead. Also, read terms and conditions of sites and services carefully before giving out a mobile number.

Do I get charged for spam messages?
In general, consumers will not be charged for spam text messages and can get a credit if they report it to the company, on a case-by-case basis.

Is spam illegal?
While Verizon is suing companies for violating the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which makes it illegal to use an auto-dialer to make calls to wireless phones, there is no explicit measure outlawing SMS spam, yet. Measures in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate were introduced this year to rectify that. The m-SPAM Act, introduced by Sens. Olympia Snowe, a Maine Republican, and Bill Nelson, a Democrat from Florida, would expand the regulatory authority of the Federal Communications Commission and the FTC to intervene against SMS spammers and would explicitly bar marketers from sending text messages to any mobile number in the national Do Not Call registry. A similar measure was introduced by Rep. Phil Gingrey, a Georgia Democrat, in March after his antispam effort last year failed.

How big a problem is this?
While people in the U.S. might receive two SMS spam messages a year, things are worse in other countries like Europe where one a week is typical; India where people receive as many as two per day; and China where it's more like five to 10 each day, according to Ferris Research. Last year, Ferris Research estimated that wireless users in the U.S. received more than 1.1 billion spam text messages in 2007, up 38 percent from 2006.

It looks like Boost Mobile's new $50 unlimited calling plan has become a victim of its own success.

Customers using the prepaid wireless service, which is owned by Sprint Nextel, say that they've experienced delays in receiving text messages. The problem was first reported by the Associated Press. A Boost representative acknowledged that since March, some customers have experienced text delays that have lasted anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours.

"We've already diagnosed and isolated the problem," said John Votava, Boost's spokesman. "And we've been working day and night since late March to fix the problem. Our technical team has been upgrading the network, and they've told us that the work will be completed by May 7."

Boost began offering its unlimited monthly service January 22. The $50 service, which doesn't require a contract, and costs only $50 for unlimited voice, SMS, and MMS messaging, and Web browsing, has proven to be very successful, the company has said. Exactly how successful, won't be known until Monday when Boost's parent company Sprint Nextel reports first quarter 2009 results. But analysts are expecting the subsidiary to report that it's gained about 500,000 new subscribers in the first quarter. As of the end of the fourth quarter of 2008, Boost had 3.6 million subscribers.

"To be honest, we were overwhelmed by the number of people signing up for the unlimited service," Votava said. "People have really been taking advantage of the unlimited texting, as they should, and it has caused us some growing pains."

Votava said delays have occurred most often during peak hours, which are from 2 p.m. EDT to about 10 p.m. EDT.

Boost uses the Nextel portion of Sprint's network for its service. Nextel uses a technology called iDEN, which differs from Sprint's PCS network, which uses CDMA. Over the years, Nextel users have complained occasionally of delayed text messages, the AP reported. But Votava said that Boost, which has used the Nextel network for its service since it launched in 2002, has not had any problems over the past seven years with delayed text messages. He said the problems only started occurring after the $50 offer went nationwide.

The AP reported that several customers are upset and frustrated with the service, but many say they won't drop the service because it's so affordable.

At $50 a month, the service is indeed a bargain. But Boost will need to fix this problem if it expects to compete with other low-cost providers, such as MetroPCS Communications and Leap Wireless International. These regional operators have long offered unlimited calling for roughly $50 per month in some areas. And now they are expanding their services into bigger cities in the Northeast. Boost also faces competition from Virgin Mobile, which followed Boost with its own $50 all-you-can-eat prepaid plan. T-Mobile USA is also offering a similar service to its existing customers in an effort to keep those customers.

E-marketing firm SmartReply has acquired mobile-advertising specialist MSnap in an effort to increase its presence on wireless devices.

SmartReply, which distributes advertisements via voice messages, e-mail, and text messages, is seeking to create the largest U.S. mobile-messaging ad network through the acquisition, according to a post on MSnap's Web site.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, and MSnap and SmartReply were not immediately available for comment, but according to a report in The Wall Street Journal, MSnap's shareholders will receive a minority stake in SmartReply.

MSnap, founded in 2006, has received investments from Partech International and First Round Capital.

The Journal, citing figures from investment bank Partech, noted that approximately 80 mobile-marketing companies have collectively raised more than $1.2 billion in venture funding since January 2006. During the same period, the Journal noted that 20 companies in the sector have been acquired for a total of roughly $900 million.

The advertising sector has seen a large pullback in the weakened economy, and industry analysts have pointed to small companies and nontraditional media companies as being the likely targets of mergers and acquisitions.

Seeking love and affection this Valentine's Day, but don't have the guts to tell your sweetheart? Using anonymous greeting cards because you're too socially inept to communicate face to face? If so, it's probably time to try a new tactic: stalking innocent commuters while they're stuck in traffic.

The newly launched MYPL8 service--also known as PL8M8--allows love-starved U.K. drivers to communicate via text. Once you spot someone you fancy, note their car's registration number and, when it's convenient, text their registration number and a brief message to the MYPL8 text number. Provided the intended recipient has previously registered with the service, they'll get your message and the opportunity to reply as they see fit.

Fellow MYPL8 members should be fairly easy to recognize. Members are offered a car sticker to display on their car windows, while others have taken to printing their registration numbers on T-shirts to get dates while away from the car. For shy daters, MYPL8 also offers a more clandestine means of identifying yourself as a member, but they're not saying what that is--you'll have to join to find out for yourself.

What do you think--is it a good idea or a waste of 35p (about 51 cents) plus your standard network text rate? Personally, Crave prefers the old-fashioned method of staring at someone until they make eye contact, pushing a naked boob up against the window, then chasing them for as long as it takes for them to run out of gas. Yes, we're old romantics.

(Via Crave UK)

Worldwide mobile messaging grew nearly 10 percent in the third quarter compared to the second quarter of the year, fueled by new trends in the messaging market, according to VeriSign, which provides Internet infrastructure services and delivers messages on behalf of carriers and content providers.

The company reported Tuesday that VeriSign enabled more than 58.3 billion messages per day during the third quarter of 2008. This was up from about 52 billion messages sent during the second quarter of 2008.

On average, this means that VeriSign facilitated the delivery of about 634 million messages per day during the third quarter, compared to 572 million messages a day in the second quarter. In the third quarter of 2007, the company helped move 280 million messages per day across its systems. VeriSign said it expects to enable nearly 200 billion messages during 2008.

The company attributed a lot of this growth in mobile messaging to new uses of the technology, which include messaging for social and political change and marketing. One of the most notable examples of this is how U.S. President-elect Barack Obama used SMS text messaging to send messages to supporters during the campaign, even using the medium to distribute some of the campaign's biggest news like the selection of his vice presidential runningmate Joe Biden.

Other groups used text messaging to solicit charitable donations. And several businesses and financial institutions also used mobile. In fact, messaging volume from businesses skyrocketed about 115 percent in the third quarter of 2008 compared to the same period a year ago, the company said. Messaging on VeriSign's Mobile Banking platform also saw a 35 percent bump in volume from the second quarter of 2008 to the third quarter.

VeriSigns figures, which include text messaging as well as other forms of messaging like multimedia messaging, is in line with growth other groups have observed. In September, the U.S. wireless association CTIA noted the explosion in text messaging among U.S. consumers. The group reported that for the month of June, American cell phone subscribers sent about 75 billion SMS text messages, averaging about 2.5 billion messages per day. This represents an increase of 160 percent over the 28.8 billion messages reported in June 2007.

(Credit: Somebody Else's Phone)

If you found somebody else's phone, would you look through it? That's a rhetorical question. Of course! Your phone is your life, at least if you're under 25, and there's nothing more interesting than the "lives of others."

The advertising firm Wieden + Kennedy London translated the idea of "cellular oversharing" into a much gushed-about ad campaign for Nokia. "Somebody Else's Phone" depicts the lives of three twentysomethings through their text messages, multimedia messaging service, and pictures, and it essentially creates a new story format: the phone novel.

Fusing scripted content with real-life audience interaction, the campaign runs in 10 different languages, following the characters' evolving storylines through a 24-7 feed of content, across three time zones, over 6 weeks.

Nice idea, though the blog of marketing firm Luon comments, "Sometimes it feels a bit like trying too hard. The advertising-tries-to-be-socially-smart thing, where it's not clear what is real and what is fake."

But that's exactly the point. Fake authenticity--I've already written about "Mad Men" on Twitter in this context--is a burgeoning trend. Fake is fine, as long as it feels real. We'll see more of it in 2009.

The blogosphere has been up in arms over the past 24 hours as news spread that Verizon Wireless is planning to increase the per-message fee it charges companies that send text alerts.

On Thursday RCR WirelessN News published a story citing a letter that OpenMarket, a direct to consumer messaging service that sends alerts for companies like Google or Orbitz, was sending to its clients explaining that it would have to tack on an additional three cents for every text message that is terminated on Verizon Wireless network.

"Effective Nov. 1, 2008, Verizon will assess a transaction fee of $0.03 for every MT message processed on its network," the letter said. "Please note that these message fees will apply to standard rate and premium programs. Transaction fees will not apply to Free-2-End-User, Mobile Giving or Non-Profit organizational programs."

OpenMarket went on to say in its letter that it planned to pass on the charges to its clients.

"Pursuant to your Commercial Services Agreement with OpenMarket (including former Simplewire Agreements) concerning Third-Party/Operator Fees, in the event message fees are assessed by Verizon for any of your programs, these fees will be passed on to your company at cost."

The letter ignited a firestorm of criticism from bloggers all over the Web who complained that this steep fee hike would kill services like ChaCha, which allows anyone to text a question to a number from their cell phone and receive an answer relatively quickly.

Others said it would likely discourage brands like ESPN from using SMS text messaging.

"Three cents may not sound like a lot, but think about how much profit ESPN generates for sending you the latest Red Sox score," Brennon Slattery of PC World writes. "Nothing. Raising the fee may eventually discourage companies from participating in the convenient service."

My colleague Sam Diaz at ZDNet said he'd stop using Twitter if the charge was passed along to him.

"Certainly, as someone who updates my own Twitter account somewhat regularly, I'm not inclined to start paying for users to receive my notifications via SMS. If that were the case, I'd just stop using Twitter."

But Jeffrey Nelson, a Verizon Wireless spokesman, said the price hike has not been finalized. Still, he acknowledged that Verizon Wireless has been discussing ways to offset increased costs associated with heavy volumes of SMS text messaging on its network.

"We are currently assessing how to best address the changing messaging marketplace, and are communicating with messaging aggregators, our valued content partners, our technology business partners and, importantly, our friends in the nonprofit and public policy arenas," he said in an e-mail. "To that end, we recently notified text messaging aggregators--those for-profit companies that provide services to content providers to aggregate and bill for their text messaging programs--that we are exploring ways to offset significantly increased costs for delivering billions upon billions of text messages each month."

Even the mere thought that Verizon is considering upping rates on text messaging is enough to get people worked up, especially since Verizon and the other three major wireless operators in the U.S. have increased the price of sending and receiving texts for consumers by 100 percent over the past two years. Rates have gone from 10 cents a message to 20 cents per message.

These price hikes come as the volume of text messages has also increased. Last month, the wireless industry association CTIA reported that 75 billion SMS text messages were sent in June, averaging about 2.5 billion messages a day. This represents an increase of 160 percent over the 28.8 billion messages reported in June 2007.

Even though text volumes have increased, I'm still not sure why Verizon would have to increase rates to cover the cost of delivering the service. SMS text messages cost carriers very little to transmit. In fact, SMS uses a pathway or control channel that already exists in cellular networks to establish communications between cell towers and handsets. Devices are constantly in communication with cell towers to let them know where they are, and the SMS messages are simply delivered along with this normal course of communication.

Given that the carriers haven't had to do anything extra to enable SMS, I'm not sure why increased volumes would necessitate raising rates to cover increased costs. Right now it seems like SMS is nearly 100 percent profit. So Verizon could use some of those existing profits to invest in some kind of expansion of the service.

That said, Verizon notes it hasn't increased per-message costs to aggregators since the messaging service began in 2003. Nelson made it clear that nonprofits and political organizations would not be charged extra to send text. And he emphasized that Verizon is still reviewing all its alternatives.

"Specific information in one proposal, which would impose a small per-message fee on for-profit content aggregators for commercial messages, has been mistakenly characterized as a final decision to implement," he said. "That draft was intended to stimulate internal business discussions and in no way should have been released to the public and represented as a final document."

American cell phone users are sending more text messages than they are making phone calls, according to a Nielsen Mobile survey released Monday.

For the second quarter of 2008, U.S. mobile subscribers sent and received on average 357 text messages per month, compared with making and receiving 204 phone calls a month, according to Nielsen. The new statistic is a clear indication that Americans have jumped onto the SMS text bandwagon.

On average, American teens send and receive 1,742 text messages a month.

(Credit: Marguerite Reardon/CBS Interactive)

In the first quarter of 2006, Americans sent and received 65 text messages per month. The number of messages sent and received today has increased 450 percent. But even though people are texting more, it doesn't mean that they've stopped talking on the phone. According to Nielsen, the number of phone calls that people make and receive each month has remained relatively flat over the past two years.

The wireless industry's trade association, CTIA, recently noted the explosion in texting in its own report. It recently reported that for the month of June, American cell phone subscribers sent about 75 billion SMS text messages, averaging about 2.5 billion messages per day. This represents an increase of 160 percent over the 28.8 billion messages reported in June 2007.

Short Message Service, or SMS, text messaging first became popular in Europe and Asia, because it was much cheaper to send short text messages than make an actual phone call. In countries such as the Philippines, the cost of sending one text is less than a penny. And in Europe where cell phone users are still penalized with high roaming charges between countries, texting is still a more economical form of communication.

But in the U.S. texting is proving to be a cash cow for carriers. Over the past two years, the cost of sending and receiving individual text messages without a special text message package has gone up 100 percent with individual text messages costing 20 cents per message. Carriers are now offering unlimited cell phone texting plans that cost an additional $20 a month, which makes sending texts more affordable for heavy texters.

The surge in text messaging is being driven by teens 13 to 17 years old, who on average send and receive about 1,742 text messages a month. Teens also talk on the phone, but at a much lower rate, only making and receiving about 231 calls per month. The report even suggests that tweens or kids under the age of 12 are also heavy text users, averaging about 428 messages per month.