Archived News - December 2004

Text Messages Popular With Teens, But Charges Add Up

30/11/19

Text messaging with cell phones has become very popular with teens. So what's the harm? One mother found out when she got the bill.


For many teens, type replaces talk on their cell phone.

Nicole Honaker and Billy Duran said they send 20 to 30 text messages a day.

Honaker has unlimited text messaging on her cell phone account but Duran does not. When he exceeds his allotted messages it costs him 10 cents a text message.

Peggy Lewis found out just how quickly those charges can add up. Her twin daughters, Anna and Jill, generated a 20-page bill that totaled $985.79.

"We were shocked. I hid it from my husband for a couple of days," Lewis said.

John Walls, with the Celluar Telephone Internet Association, said there are things parents can do to avoid such huge bills.

"The first thing that parents should do is sit down with their teen and make sure they understand how they intend to use the phone ... how often do (they) text message people?" Wall said.

He also said parents should be aware of the runaway popularity of text messaging and read contracts carefully. Each carrier has a different plan. Some have a fixed number of text messages, while other are unlimited.

If the bill has already arrived, Walls said you're probably stuck with it.

"Bit it's how you pay it that the carrier is almost always willing to work with you on," he said.

A cell phone industry spokesman said there is a practical benefit to text messaging. When cell phone networks get overloaded and voice calls are jammed in the system, text messages often get through, making it a useful feature in an emergency.

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J&K Bank to offer Internet and SMS banking in Kashmir soon

30/11/19

Jammu and Kashmir Bank today said it will soon offer Internet and Short Message Service (SMS) banking to its customers in the North Indian state as part of its modernisation plan which envisages 100 per cent automation of its services by March next year.

"The Jammu and Kashmir Bank shall be soon starting SMS banking and also internet banking in the State, chairman of the bank M Y Khan said after launching a mobile Automated Teller Machine (ATM) here, the first of its kind in north India.

Khan said the new initiatives were part of bank's endeavour to fine-tune its relationship with customers and making every effort to reach the customers at their doorsteps, even when they are far away from a branch.

He said customers will be enjoying mobile banking, which is one of the newest initiatives in the Indian market, as the mobile ATM shall be moving from place to place in the entire Srinagar city.

"This mobile ATM was part of the commitment where the bank, which is on the verge of achieving 100 per cent automation of its operation by March 2005, had underlined its commitment to customers by investing in a fleet of mobile bank vehicles in the State," Khan said.

Initially, the mobile vehicle loaded with an ATM with connectivity facility rendered by BSNL through GSM and GPRS technologies, will be providing all such services as are available on other ATMs of the bank, Khan said.

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HKU libraries adopt text messaging service

30/11/19

Students of the University of Hong Kong will get instant text messages on overdue library books since the launch of Library Messaging Service Thursday.

Offered by the university's ETI Consulting Limited (ETIC), the new service is part of the university's on-going efforts to enhance the communication between the university and students, as well as to improve the university's operations by adopting the latest applications in information technology.

The text messaging service allows the HKU Libraries to send text messages on overdue books, book reservations and new book announcements.

Students of the university were happy about the new service. They said that in the past, they depended on the e-mail system to check for the latest library news and library book status.

The new service not only allow them to obtain the latest information but also largely enhance the efficiency of the operation of the library, said some students.

The service is based on one of the applications of the ETIC Mobile Messaging Platform, which solves the problem of integratingthe different standards and protocols of mobile operators and, thereby, enabling organizations to fully capitalize on the potential of wireless messaging applications.

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Text Messaging – a technological first from a Prime Minister

30/11/19

It has recently been reported that Prime Minister Tony Blair is to connect with thousands of mobile-phone users, in a novel attempt to win over voters under 24 - the age group seen as the most committed texters.

However, this is not the first time that text messaging has been used in the political arena to communicate with potential voters. Earlier this summer, text messaging was chosen by Liberal Democrat London Mayoral candidate, Simon Hughes as the tool for his campaign ‘Text Simon’. The party rolled out this ‘new’ political communication using Text Message Server (TMS). It was also reported that Labour controversially used text messages in the 2001 election - sending thousands of messages saying "If you don't give a XXXX for closing times, vote Labour."

The upsurge in SMS as a convenient and fast means of communication, coupled with low cost and accuracy, makes SMS a unique and confidential means of communication. Texting brings any campaign right up to date, enabling voters to text their questions and concerns.

Jeanette Fennell comments “Engaging people into politics and voting is probably one of the hardest tests that politicians face in any election campaign. SMS is the favoured method of communication for the under 25s - the next generation of voters - so is an obvious choice.”

Many varied organisations have taken advantage of the considerable benefits of PC-based text messaging, including ambulance, fire and other emergency services, insurance brokers, law firms, satellite telecommunications and rail transport companies.

Asked by the Capital FM DJ Margherita Taylor in November about his texting skills, Tony Blair confessed "My texting talents are poor, let's say they're underdeveloped," he added. "My children are texters. My daughter took me through it the other night. The predictive one I wasn't too bad on, but the other way - let's just say it would have taken me a very long time to send a very short message. However, almost 7,000 mobile phone users had "Texted the PM.”

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Calling All Advertisers

30/11/19

NEW YORK - Think you'd never ask for an ad? You might.
The producers of the hit TV series 24, which airs on Fox Entertainment Group's Fox Broadcasting network, are creating short, promotional videos that will be broadcast to cell phone customers who sign up to receive them. The free, one-minute videos won't be clips from the existing show but rather mini-dramas based on the series, using different actors.

They'll first be made available via Vodafone's U.K. wireless service in January, coinciding with the launch of 24's fourth season. In the U.S., Fox parent News Corp. (has a deal with Verizon Wireless, partly owned by Vodafone, to make the videos available to customers using its new 3G high-speed service, which should be available in the first half of next year. These kinds of promotional streaming videos are expected to start popping up on cell phones all over the U.S. in 2005, as providers like Cingular, the BellSouth -SBC Communications joint venture, also roll out 3G services.

Welcome to the latest marriage of entertainment and marketing. These mobile episodes, or "mobisodes" as they've been dubbed, will serve an astonishing array of functions in 60 seconds: They will entertain, promote a TV series and pitch 3G services, as well as the fancy phones we need to use them.

Marketers are betting that if the content is short, entertaining and, of course, free, consumers will sign up for videos like 24. They point to similar text-messaging campaigns: Mobile Media North America runs a program for The Walt Disney Co.'s ABC networks called Soap, which gives fans text-message alerts and inside scoops on All My Children, General Hospital and One Life to Live.

Neither Disney nor Mobile Media will disclose fan numbers for Soap. But a previous text-message campaign for All My Children's Sexiest Man in America Contest drew some 2.5 million online and text-message votes. Fans also sent in more than 2,000 other text messages during the contest. Mobile Media is also partnered with News Corp., Spanish-language broadcaster Univision Communications and The Weather Channel.

And it may not matter to cell customers that they are using their minutes to watch an ad. "As long as the programming is relevant to consumers, they don't really consider it marketing," says Chris Colburn, an executive at Interpublic Group's interactive marketing unit R/GA, who is not involved with the 24 project. "Especially if it's something that they've opted into."

In a world of TiVo and pop-up blockers, he says, advertising will increasingly be presented using media that's requested, or pulled, by consumers rather than pushed at them.

The mobisode format won't be limited to existing programming. "These programming spots will be most effective when they are unique spinoffs of a known property that's only available via cell phone," says Colburn, "as opposed to re-purposing something that you can already see on TV."

And that property doesn't have to be a TV show. "Any consumer product company could create their own mobisodes," says Colburn, and they will, using the same stars that headline their commercials. A Nike spot could star Michael Jordan, while one for PepsiCo (nyse: PEP - news - people ) might feature Britney Spears.

"Savvy advertisers," adds Colburn, "will create free content that can be sent to cell phones in advance of the paid versions coming to market."

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Idea works for buddies

30/11/19

STAFF rosters are the bane of many a manager's life, but two young inventors have developed a system that makes them as easy as sending a text message.

Roland Handel, 28, and Aaron Ng, 24, left secure jobs in the IT sector 12 months ago to start their own company, WorkBuddy, using their savings and contributions from family.

That investment looks set to pay off, and the pair will be named NSW Young Entrepreneurs of the Year at Shell's Livewire youth business awards tomorrow.

It hasn't been easy for the budding businessmen, neither of whom had any experience with the financial and legal issues confronting a new enterprise.

"I couldn't emphasise enough how hard the past year has been," Handel says.

"We came from a big company where we had secure positions and a good salary. We've foregone that, and haven't had any salary coming in for the past 12 months."

WorkBuddy software allows managers to prepare rosters electronically and send them out to employees via a text message.

Employees simply reply to the text message to confirm whether they can work.

Aimed at the hospitality, health and security industries, the system could equally apply to any company employing shift, casual or part-time workers.

WorkBuddy already has two large clients, and Handel and Ng are working with two contract software designers to refine the product to their specifications.

Handel says the idea came out of his casual work as a student.

"When I was at uni, working in hotels and bars, all the rosters were done on paper," he says.

"I thought there had to be a better way to do it."

Years later, as a marketing graduate, he got to know Ng, a software designer in same company, and they decided to give the concept a go.

"We've spent most of the year doing development," Handel says.

"We've spoken to industry bodies as well as bars and pubs, and they've all been very enthusiastic."

The pair estimate they've spent about $30,000 on development so far, without paying themselves any salary. But they feel it has been worth the risk and hard work.

"It's turning an idea into reality - making that happen is an enormous challenge," Handel says.

"It's also knowing that if we come in and work 12 hours a day, seven days a week, we're actually helping ourselves."

WorkBuddy beat a field of eight finalists to win the title, which comes with a trophy and a $7000 cheque from Shell.

The Livewire program, open to 18- to 28-year-olds, provides advice and mentoring to young businesspeople, as well as awards.

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Most SMS providers in Code breach

30/11/19

Most SMS service providers are advertising wallpapers, logos, screensavers etc. in breach of the industry's codes, a notice from RegTel, the regulator of premium rate telecommunications services said.

RegTel said the imagery being used is suggestive and explicit and breaches Code of Practice 5.2.1(ii).
The industry watchdog also said that the problem of "opting out" of subscription services has continued to grow, causing major consumer concern and generating huge numbers of complaints.

RegTel said that both service and content providers are failing to honour the unsubscription term "Stop".

"This has now reached a level that is not acceptable," RegTel said.

The regulator said that, in future, if providers fail to honour the "Stop" command their service would be suspended. It also said that promotional material will have to be submitted to it in advance.

RegTel said that the consumer must be in no doubt that they are subscribing to a service and in future will have to display the words, "This is a subscription service" on all advertising and promotional material including TV and radio ads.

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Rural South Africans dive into text messaging

30/11/19

'Sawubona! Unjani?" is less snappy than "How r u?" but the text message means the same thing in Zulu.

For Southern Africa's rural populations, SMS, for short message service, is allowing people to communicate like never before.

In some isolated parts of KwaZulu-Natal Province in South Africa, the distinctive towers of mobile phone masts are now as much part of the scenery as the rolling green hills and endless blue sky. Cellular networks cover 90 percent of the country, connecting far more people than the scarce land-line system.

The numbers are telling. There are about 43 million people living in South Africa and only 4.7 million have access to a fixed-line telephone. MTN, one of the three mobile networks, estimates there are 18.4 million mobile phone owners, or 41 percent of the population, in South Africa. By 2010, MTN projects about 33 million people, or 77 percent of the current population, will have mobile phones.

Cellphone technology has not only got South Africans talking, it has also got them texting.

Portia Maurice, the corporate communications general manager at MTN, estimates that a South African mobile phone user sends 17 text messages a day, compared with the four texts a European sends on a daily basis.

Low costs are the main attraction for South Africans. For MTN's prepaid customers, an SMS can cost as little as 35 South African cents, or 6 U.S. cents, a message. By comparison, the cheapest voice call rate is 95 cents a minute.

"SMS usage is growing," Maurice said by telephone. "For us, it is an important source of growth going forward." This rising use of cellphones and text messaging is echoed across the continent. Africa is the world's fast-growing market for mobile communications, according to the International Telecommunication Union. Not surprising when it is easier to get a prepaid mobile phone contract than a bank account.

In Africa, mobile phones are more common than credit cards. I have seen former child soldiers in Mozambique and wizened village chiefs in Zululand use their mobile phones with glee.

Text messaging not only keeps Africans in touch with one another but it is also helping to save lives.

In Gugulethu, near Cape Town, an experimental SMS-based software program called Cell-Life is being used to help administer antiretroviral drugs to people with HIV/AIDS. Two doctors and one nurse keep in contact with one another and their 500 patients via text messages sent from local counselors.

"Text messages support a network of home based care," Samira Anand, technical development manager at Cell-Life, said in a telephone interview. Gugulethu-based counselors visit the patients, monitor their condition and text back updates to a central database. "The doctors don't get to see as many patients as they would like," Anand said. "This allows them to pinpoint patients who aren't doing well. And, of course, monitor those patients that are benefiting from drug therapy."

A group African women's rights advocates are urging women to use their mobile phones to sign an online petition. By sending an SMS message, women can support a campaign urging African governments to ratify an African Union protocol on women's rights.

Even the Nelson Mandela Foundation has gone digital. South African mobile phone users can pledge support to the foundation by texting 46664, Mandela's prison number on Robben Island. Each text costs 20 rand, and the proceeds go toward Mandela's development projects.

The large continental network of mobile phone users is also benefiting companies, many of which find they can cut costs and single out customers directly if they use text messages rather than phone or mail them.

Escaping the text message in Southern Africa, it seems, is nigh impossible. If you are late returning your rental DVD or video, the local video store texts you a reminder. If you have rented a car, the rental company texts you the final bill before deducting the amount from your credit card. All within minutes of returning the car and handing over the keys.

Banks notify account holders by text message when a deposit or withdrawal is made into or from their account. The E-Block Watch service informs people in certain areas about criminal acts so that the whole community can be on the lookout for culprits.

With their mobile phones, a growing number Africans are finding their voices. In Zulu, "siyakhuluma" means "we are talking." They're also texting.

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New media still evolving fast

30/11/19

When the topic is news in the digital age, everyone is talking about Weblogs. But the reality is that the way we get news is changing so fast that no one can predict which of many trends will last.
Just 10 years ago, some thought we would all be reading electronic books, but they haven't taken off, and it's clear that traditional publishing -- putting print onto paper -- still has a long life ahead.

I defer to no one in my admiration for the e-book idea, but the notion that they would displace conventional books and newspapers was a nonstarter. More likely is a leveraging of the virtues of print vs. screen, each of which has pluses and minuses. I love the ability to search a news story on a computer, but paper is easier on the eyes.

Try to track a clear direction in digital journalism and you're likely to get a headache. Consider a small test case that recently occurred in the Netherlands. When a much-loved singer named Andre Hazes died there, mobile phone calls in the country rose 10 percent as people spread the news. But what's really intriguing is the 15 minutes after Hazes died, when the use of text messaging via SMS doubled.

SMS stands for Short Message Service, and chances are you already use it, given its recent popularity. It's a way of sending short text messages via cell phone. So widely used is SMS that I get the occasional "wrong number" message in text form. The other night my cell phone screen lit up with the message "What up 2nite," a call to adventure unfortunately directed elsewhere.

Now think about it: If text messaging doubles in Holland when a news story breaks, then we are seeing the cell network becoming a news distributor. I would have to guess that a huge number of Dutch fans learned of Hazes' death first by SMS, and only later by the mass media.

And in some ways, this form of distribution leaves even Web methods in the dust. After all, posting news on a Weblog requires the publisher to be at a computer and to compose the story for online use.

Text messaging is all but instant, requiring no more than a good workout for your thumbs as you manage those tiny keys.

And then along comes a study conducted by the Ericsson Consumer Lab in Spain, showing that SMS may be blowing past the Internet among young people in that country. Whereas 38 percent of the 15-to-24-year olds surveyed said they connected to the Net on a daily basis, a whopping 68 percent reported sending SMS messages.

The phenomenon means that reading the news is only half the story. The real action is in spreading the news, one screen at a time.

Talk about new media! Maybe there is a market somewhere in SMS whereby traditional publishers could reach this generation of text messagers. But it's hard to see how pushing serious content onto cell phone screens will help, even with the advent of powerful "smart phones" that have the computing capability of handheld computers.

The key to SMS is short and fast -- it's not a medium for reflection.

So what we expected would be a digital takeover of publishing is in fact taking many a strange fork in the road. It turns out that people will read in whichever way makes best sense for them; they don't read as a way of adapting new technologies.

Paper-based books and newspapers will survive even as alternative media proliferate, but with an online component that will distribute their content through devices whose popularity we can seldom predict.

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Never Miss Sports Score

30/11/19

Synfonic Inc. today launched a new sports-score SMS search engine, allowing NFL and NBA fans to search for up-to-the-minute sports scores from their cell phones.

Sports fans torn away from their TV or radio will now be able to send a simple text message to Synfonics Sports Search Engine with the league and initials of the city where the team plays and Synfonic's search engine will quickly return a text message with the latest score. If the game is not currently in progress, Synfonic Sports will return the game time so fans can catch their favorite games.

"We've all been in situations where work or life interferes with our sports viewing schedules," said Sanjay Beri, co-founder, president and chief strategy officer of Synfonic.

"Our new sports score search engine takes away some of the pain by allowing fans to check in on games. Whether you are in a meeting, at a Saturday wedding, or shopping with your partner, you can surreptitiously stay abreast of professional sports scores through your cell phone."

Synfonic currently offers a score service with text messages, but as cell phones become more sophisticated and handle video clips, the company will be able to offer fans short video clips of crucial points in any game along with information on the scores. Scores for other leagues will be available as their season begins.

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Text a teacher to stop school bullies

30/11/19

Mobile phones have become the latest weapon against the bullies at a Wigan secondary school, where youngsters can report yobs by text message.

Until now bullying had to be reported directly to a teacher.

But many youngsters found knocking on a teacher's door daunting. So, a texting system has been set up at St Mary's RC High School, in Tyldesley.

It means any youngster who has witnessed bullying - or has fallen prey to bullies - can send a discrete text message to a senior member of staff. And that teacher can then text them back.

But youngsters have to wait until they are away from school before they send a message because mobile phones are banned.

Associate deputy headteacher John Proctor says early indications are that the system is working well.

He said: "Our policy is not to have mobile phones at school, because they can be disruptive, but the children have mobile phones and there is a text culture.

"They may not be willing to push a note under a teacher's door, but they would send a text."

As part of the school's approach to bullying a number of pupils have been trained to mentor youngsters who have suffered bullying.

Mr Proctor hopes the measures will send out a clear message to all youngsters that bullying is anti-social and unacceptable.

The texting system has been made possible because of technology developed by Rawtenstall-based company ²ergo, sponsor of the school's specialist college status.

In addition to the anti-bullying function the software also facilitates the sending of text messages to parents to tell them when children are absent from school.

And within weeks parents will be able to access a database of exam results to check on their children's academic progress.

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TCOM introduces SMS/MMS Auction Service in China

30/11/19

Telecom Communications Inc., an integrated communications network solutions provider has announced that its subsidiary, Alpha Century Holdings Limited, had introduced its new product interactive SMS/MMS Auction Service for SEO4Mobile users in China.

For the first time, Chinese consumers can bid for a variety of products by using SEO4Mobile. They can then offer their maximum price for a product by SMS using Alpha's SMS/MMS Auction Manager System, built on AdMaxB2Search work platform.

The company informs that SMS/MMS Auction Manager System provides all active listings on an interactive MMS interface used by SEO4Mobile. This process also automatically checks the customer's credit history so that delivery options can be adapted accordingly.

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SMS shorthand is annoying: official

30/11/19

A study shows that of the 2,680 mobile phone users polled 44 per cent would approve of a guide to 'text etiquette'.

Text shorthand is not popular, the survey found, and is only used by 13 per cent of all mobile users, but 23 per cent of 18-29 year olds admit to using it. 54 per cent of respondents said that messages in shorthand were "difficult to understand", with 41 per cent seeing text messages as "sloppily written". Seventy Seven per cent would oppose the inclusion of common text abbreviations in the Oxford English Dictionary.

Text messaging is however seen as a useful way to communicate: 56 per cent of those surveyed have wished someone a merry Christmas via SMS. 70 per cent have used text to say 'happy birthday'. Women are more prolific than men, with 46 per cent admitting to gossiping using SMS compared to 34 per cent of men. Women send 19 text messages a week compared to men's 15.

Text messaging appears to have become the language of love for some, with 56 per cent of 18-29 year olds saying they have flirted using text. 19 per cent said they have texted a partner to say "I love you" for the first time, but only one per cent have proposed via SMS. 10 per cent said that they had used text messaging to end a relationship.

SMS is becoming more popular in the workplace, the study shows. 17 per cent of employees surveyed used a text message to say that they would be late, and seven per cent have 'texted in sick'.

The study also found that predictive text input software is popular, with 41 per cent of 18-29 year olds who use the software saying they couldn't do without it.

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N3 Road Info Available Via SMS

30/11/19

A new SMS service has been launched for N3 toll road users, which provides road users with immediate access to vital real-time information that could affect their journey.

The N3 toll concession and Setso Africa have set up Rrapid, a messaging service that relays incidents happening on the 418km N3 toll road between Heidelberg in Gauteng and Cedara in KwaZulu-Natal.

Road users can SMS "KZN" or "GP" to the number 37003, depending on which direction they are driving.

Once an SMS is sent, road users are sent updates for a period of five hours, after which the service will time out. "The five-hour window period takes into account an average four-hour drive and a one-hour lunch break," says Wayde Fortune, MD of Setso design concepts.

According to Fortune, the N3 toll concession needed a real-time service that informs motorists about accidents, traffic congestion and extreme weather conditions. While the N3 toll concession does have a Web site, it is not readily available to all road users while driving between the two provinces.

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Text Messaging Service Offers Select Scriptures for Holiday Season

30/11/19

Text messaging Bible service offers select verses surrounding the birth of Jesus for the holidays.

Mfaith, a text messaging Bible service produced by SMS Media Group is enhancing its service for the holiday season by offering carefully selected verses surrounding the birth of Jesus.

The service has been sending a daily Bible verse to subscriber's cell phones for about a year and a half. Each message is carefully selected by Gary Brooks, President of SMS Media Group. "I try to select messages that I think will be relevant and helpful to our subscribers," remarks Brooks.

During the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, these special scriptures will help remind you about what's really important. The mfaith service is free to subscribe, other than any fees a wireless carrier may charge.

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Text Messaging to a Different Beat

30/11/19

You feel lucky as you call the radio station that is offering free Britney Spears concert tickets to caller number 25. You get a busy signal so you dial again, only to get another busy signal. By the time you get through the speed-dialers, the tickets are long gone.

Getting a busy signal on the phone is frustrating - especially for the 20 year-old concert-goer who really wants free Britney Spears tickets.

"It's a complaint we hear a lot," says one radio promotions specialist. "There are actually people who are experts at getting free concert tickets from radio stations because they're speed dialers. They shut out everyone else."

Callers aren't the only ones frustrated. Marketing promotions are measured by how many listeners they attract and keep on attracting. It's what allows stations to help quantify their audience to would-be advertisers. The busy signal means that radio station marketers and DJs are not capitalizing on opportunities to interact with listeners, build DJ followings, or increase listenership.

During the summer of 2003, KTTB/B96 - "The Beat of the Twin Cities," in Minneapolis, was determined to make busy signals a sound of the past and improve its one-on-one relationship with individual listeners. In its search to set itself apart from the competition, the radio station's marketing promotion staff decided to try out a new type of radio promotion. The promotion would use text messaging as the basis of a free ticket giveaway.

Text messaging has become increasingly popular in the United States during the last few years, a fact that did not go unnoticed by the B96 marketing staff. Not only was the approach novel, but there was an added benefit: "The Tone E. Fly Morning Show" would be the very first radio station in the United States to use the technology for a promotional contest.

B96 promotions director Chris Olsen turned to Vibes Media, an interactive marketing company, known previously for developing a tool called the Instant Response Platform, which allows marketers and brand managers to directly interact with target customers via text messaging.

Vibes, with its roots in one-on-one marketing, saw the potential to use the combined technology of cellphones and SMS (short message service) as a vehicle for one-on-one communications to a massive audience, like radio. One-on-one marketing can use a tool like a cellphone to directly interact, and have dialogue with, a large number of customers. This, in turn, generates more brand awareness and interest in that company's product or services. At the time, this was a gamble for Vibes, but one that paid off; more than half of the population in the United States now owns a mobile phone, and rarely are they without them.

Vibes' iRadio is the first large-scale text messaging application designed specifically for radio. Text messaging is perfect for marrying radio's inherent mobile nature to its mobile, phone-carrying audience. With text messaging, stations don't have to worry about listeners being shut out by busy signals or having to staff phone lines, and they can leverage an exciting new medium for more revenue.

B96's Olsen says there were several goals for the marketing promotion. At its core, the radio station wanted to build excitement among its listeners as well as increase the interaction between listeners and on-air personalities. The radio station hoped to increase text messaging usage among listeners and gain a distinct competitive advantage. It was this radio personality-listener interaction that the station expected to help fuel advertiser interest as well. But as they found out, the technology would create a one-on-one DJ-listener bond never before seen in media.

The radio station chose its popular morning show host, Tone E. Fly, to test run the interactive technology. The colorful Tone E. Fly has a large following in the area and the radio station expected that the DJ would get the most use out of the potential for direct interaction with his listeners.

At the start of each show, Tone E. Fly told listeners that the 25th individual to text in the day's keyword would win a prize, such as concert tickets. Having listeners text in their entry instead of calling meant that every listener would receive a personal response from Tone E. Fly. The promotion was available to any listener, anytime, using any wireless phone, with no restrictions. Once a message was sent to the radio station, Vibes' Instant Respond Platform automatically sent a personalized message back to every caller letting them know their text was received. There were no busy signals and listeners appreciated the one-on-one dialogue with Tone E. Fly.

"This is a level of interaction that was never possible before through phone-in contests," Olsen said. "It immediately gave us an idea of how popular Tone E. Fly's show was, and of audience data points based on what tickets or prizes would generate listener participation. It gave callers a chance to interact with us rather than hang up, frustrated by a busy signal."

The messages listeners received reinforced that they had gotten through to the station and were heard. As listeners continued to text into the show and get closer to the winning number, Vibes' iRadio application would respond with a message such as, "You are number 24, sorry just a bit too fast;" or "You are number 26, try to be a bit quicker next time." These types of messages kept listeners interested and enticed them to try again during the next contest.

"If anything, I found text contesting more effective than a calling contest," Tone E. Fly said. "Instead of, ?You're caller five, click; caller six, click,' everyone participating is getting something back from you."

The Vibes iRadio platform also brought some fringe benefits to B96's DJ and promotions staff. Outside of just utilizing this technology to run contests and promotions, Tone E. Fly and show DJs were able to monitor all incoming messages and even respond to individual listeners. This provided DJs the ability to personalize their show as never before and listeners now had a direct link to their favorite DJs. Many listeners sent messages regarding song requests and ?shout-outs.' This alternative interaction only further endeared listeners to the station, and the show, due to the personal interaction that was now possible.

"I'm a DJ so I love the live nature of the interaction with my listeners," Tone E. Fly said. "Vibes' platform allows me to read incoming messages from listeners in real-time and choose who I want to give a ?shout-out' to on-air. I can even send my own personal messages right back to people. It's cool."

Vibes' iRadio offers a Web-based platform that shows all the real-time text messages coming into the show. Through the use of this tool, radio personalities were able to instantly view and respond to any message they desire through the Web interface. This made the interaction process easy for show personalities. The iRadio platform is easily modified on the fly, allowing radio stations to create multiple marketing campaigns without technical headaches.

Other tools allow for real-time reporting and adjustments so that programmers can make quick changes in order to maximize audience participation and interaction. The tools can keep track of the number of messages that enter the system during the duration of an event or day. It also keeps track of when messages are sent and can record and track participants in real-time.

This combination of tools is very helpful in the ability to break down a single contest/event and measure the number of people responding, how many messages each person sent, and display their correspondence. This also gave the marketing and promotions staff at B96 a better understanding of their audience, helping them to counsel advertisers on what shows were the best fit for their advertising dollar.

Although an individual may have already sent in his or her text regarding a contest, B96 wanted to encourage further interaction with their listeners to help strengthen the radio station's following. By asking users if they would like to participate in a game or trivia contest, B96 extended the amount of times listeners interacted with the station. This extended interaction can then be used to develop future promotions, and gauge the effectiveness of their DJs and the success of their radio shows.

There was also the added benefit of using these interactions as another opportunity for would-be advertisers. Interactive text messaging programs add a new dimension to radio sponsorship. By harnessing the interactive power of text messaging, radio stations can easily engage their listeners in one-on-one dialogue, even during large-scale contests. Sponsors like the fact that each message to the listener can be tagged with a "powered-by" message, making each communication brand-specific.

"After a certain promotion was completed, we'd still have these interactions with the listeners," Olsen said. "Quizzes or games can be branded with station identification or sponsor/advertiser tags."

In Europe and Asia, the acceptance of SMS has been fast and widespread. The U.S. market is starting to experience this boom and many companies are coming forward to capitalize on text messaging applications. Until now text messaging has been referred to as "the fifth media channel," but its widespread use hasn't really materialized. Text messaging is a boon to marketers, application developers, and ultimately carriers because of its rapid integration and acceptance by the phone-carrying public. The depth and personalized nature of the communication available in a one-on-one interaction appeals to customers while the sheer volume of traffic carried through carrier networks can generate serious revenue. As SMS adoption becomes more visible, carriers and consumer brands are increasingly looking toward this channel as another way to interact with their customers and increase revenues.

B96's interactive radio program ran a total of 12 weeks, and many of the interactions were repeats even after the initial promotion had finished. This additional interaction with listeners set B96 apart, says Olsen. "Listeners and advertisers took notice of how we were experimenting with the bleeding edge of radio and communications."

Many mobile marketing application developers miss the target when it comes to creating text-messaging applications for consumer marketing. They use the "one and done" method, which grabs and holds consumers only for a brief time. Mobile applications and marketing campaigns can be crafted to hold and retain consumer attention. B96 and Tone E. Fly proved this technology can create deeper one-on-one brand interaction with listeners.

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NHS chief hails hospital's text messaging service

30/11/19

An innovative text messaging system to remind Addenbrooke's patients of their appointments has been hailed by the chief executive of the NHS.

Sir Nigel Crisp highlighted the scheme used by the hospital's dermatology clinic as an example of how technology could be used to cut waiting times.

Patients are sent a text message several days before an appointment reminding them of the date and time in a bid to reduce the number of appointments missed.

They can then change the appointment if they cannot attend, freeing the slot up for another patient.

In his annual report on the performance of the NHS, Sir Nigel said the scheme had halved the number of missed appointments at minimal cost.

He said: "Addenbrooke's dermatology clinic has taken an innovative approach to cut down on the number of outpatient appointments that are missed, which has led to clinic time being used more efficiently.

"When new patients are referred, they are asked if they would like to join a text messaging service which will remind them of their appointment via their mobile phone.

"Patients receive a text message reminder a few days before their appointment, which gives the date and time, but does not include details of the clinic to provide confidentiality.

"Before the service was introduced, 8 per cent of new patient appointments were missed.

"The text messaging scheme, combined with another scheme where new patients can phone and book an appointment time to suit them, has reduced the rate of missed new appointments by half, while costing virtually nothing to run."

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Daily Horoscopes Hit Cell Phones Across America

30/11/19

Russell Grant, Europe’s leading astrologer has teamed up with SMS Media Group to deliver his award winning daily horoscopes via text message to cell phones throughout the US.

(PRWEB) December 10, 2004 -- Russell Grant, Europe’s leading astrologer has teamed up with SMS Media Group to deliver his award winning daily horoscopes via text message to cell phones throughout the US.

Russell Grant has personally presented Queen Elizabeth with astrological readings and can currently be seen daily on many TV shows in the UK and Europe, and writes for over 450 newspapers, magazines and websites.

From impulsive Aries and inquisitive Gemini to philosophical Sagittarius and magnetic Scorpio, horoscope lovers across the US can now get their daily dose of astrological guidance and inspiration delivered directly to their phones every morning via text message.

Phil McKnight from Russell Grant Astrology said, “We’ve found the ideal text message delivery platform in SMS Media Group, with their simple turn-key solutions and ability to drop sponsored advertising onto our content”.

Subscribers can sign-up by visiting www.russellgrant.com and choosing their star sign and time zone. The service is free to receive, except for any delivery charges individual carriers may add.

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Verona asks visitors to pledge love by SMS

30/11/19

Scribbled love notes cover the walls around the tiny marble balcony where the mythical Juliet is said to have pined for Romeo, but Verona wants amorous visitors to go digital in the interest of preservation.

Authorities in Verona, the northern Italian city that is home to literature's most famous star-crossed lovers, say thousands of notes are destroying the 13th Century house.

"It is time to clean the building, because people aren't just writing on the walls of entrance arch, they are sticking notes on the walls with gum," the Verona council's Francesca Tamellini said.

"It has become really ugly."

Verona plans instead to ask visitors to use their mobile phones and send text messages to a giant screen.

"It seemed the best solution to us, and it will appeal to young people, who are the first to want to send their messages," Mr Tamellini said.

Juliet's house, which is in reality a former inn, is traditionally held to have been the home of the Capulets, her powerful family.

Acquired by the council a century ago, it was officially designated "the house of Juliet" in 1935.

William Shakespeare, whose 16th Century play celebrated the two young lovers, probably never visited Verona but starry-eyed visitors are not discouraged.

Tourists flock by the thousands to see the courtyard, the balcony under which Romeo allegedly proclaimed his love and a languid statue of Juliet, which is said to bring luck to the lovelorn.

Many of them, keen to leave their mark, scrawl something on scraps of paper or on the wall itself for posterity.

"I would like to teach you, not to love me, my love, but to tell me you do," Chiara Cabassi writes.

Her letter is one of those awarded a prize by the Giulietta Club, which is a local association that collects the missives.

The club says the tradition dates from 1937, when the first letter addressed to "Juliet, Verona" was found by the custodian of her tomb.

"Certainly there is a problem," Giulio Tamassia, who heads the Giulietta Club, said.

"It was okay when people were just writing on the walls, but then it was chewing gum, papers stuck on and you can't even seen the walls.

"But text messages seem a little strange. It doesn't seem appropriate to have them flashing up on a screen - most importantly, how can you reply to them all?"

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Students' phones to go beep this week

30/11/19

Almost 25,000 Year 12 students across NSW will receive their Higher School Certificate (HSC) results via text message this week - twice as many as last year.

The SMS service for results was introduced in 2003 by the Board of Studies.

This year the number of students choosing it over the traditional methods of the internet and an automated telephone service had doubled, said Education Minister Dr Andrew Refshauge.

"Waiting for the HSC results can be one of the most anxious periods for our Year 12 students," he said.

"The SMS service is fast becoming one of the most popular ways to get HSC results."

Students will receive their results via text message from 6am on Friday.

Dr Refshauge said there were a few more days for others to sign up for the service if they wished.

There were 66,279 students who enrolled to sit the HSC in 2004.

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Peterson death sentence relayed via messaging

30/11/19

Much of the online world was glued to computer screens Monday to hear the jury in the Scott Peterson double-murder trial call for the death penalty.

A number of news organizations broadcast live audio of the sentencing recommendation, including a live report from inside the courtroom delivered via short text messaging. The decision was announced at approximately 1:50 p.m. PST.

The California trial of Peterson, for the murder of his pregnant 27-year-old wife, Laci, and their unborn child, Conner, has captured the attention of much of the world. Peterson claimed that he was innocent of the charges. But last month, the jury found Peterson guilty of first-degree murder for killing his wife and of second-degree murder for the death of his unborn son.

Jurors deliberated for about 12 hours before deciding that the former fertilizer salesman should die.

Peterson's death penalty sentencing was covered live via a wireless device, adding a new dimension to TV news coverage. A reporter from KCRA-TV in Sacramento used a laptop to send reports from inside the courtroom back to the TV station's newsroom, using an existing wireless network inside the courtroom.

The word picture augmented what was an audio-only feed from inside the courtroom due to a ban on cameras in the court. "Four bailiffs are lined up on the left side" of the courtroom, "Juror 11 winked" and "Scott walked in, smiles at his parents" were among the missives that scrolled by on-screen.

The news reporting represents a gray area in courtroom procedures, some journalism experts say. Like most other courts in the United States, San Mateo County bans anyone inside a courtroom from using cell phones--another kind of wireless device--at any time. But KCRA News Director Dan Weiser said there are no rules about using the existing wireless network.

"We think we were allowed to do this," Weiser said.

San Mateo County Court Executive Officer Peggy Thompson said she's now investigating just what happened and whether any rules were violated.

Journalism experts say use of wireless networks in the courts is largely undefined.

"Courts in general don't have a very good policy yet on wireless networks," said Michael Overing, an adjunct professor of Internet law at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School of Journalism.

"This is sort of uncharted territory," said Jim Bettinger, director of the Knight Fellowships for professional journalists at Stanford University. Bettinger said the fragmentary reporting that comes from text messaging could raise a red flag. "Judges may be concerned about that," he said.

Hundreds of people gathered outside the courthouse in Redwood City, near San Francisco, and some appeared to celebrate the death verdict. Peterson was vilified in his hometown, Modesto, from where the trial was moved to find a more impartial jury.

Under California law, Superior Court Judge Alfred Delucchi could disagree with the jury and impose a life prison term when he sentences Peterson on Feb. 25, but California judges rarely overturn the will of juries in death penalty cases, according to the Reuters news service.

Web traffic to news sites appeared to spike around the time of the sentencing recommendation. ABC News' home page, along with those of MSNBC, the Christian Science Monitor, required greater time to completely download, according to Keynote Systems, which tracks Web site performance.

In addition, postings about the trial proliferated on Internet message boards Monday.

"Justice has been served," one person wrote on a message board hosted by Court TV after the death penalty recommendation. Another commenter focused on the demands put on the jury: "Not what I would have voted for but an appropriate sentence anyway. I believe the jurors labored long & hard for this verdict. Bless them, they need a long rest now."

Still another person sounded ready to return to matters other than the high-profile trial. "I am having major (anxiety) right now!! I think I may need an anti-depressant--do Dr.'s give those to people w/ anxiety?!" the person wrote before the death sentence recommendation was pronounced. "Honestly, I'm ready for this to be over."

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Etisalat launches SMS-based translation service powered by Sakhr

30/11/19

Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (Etisalat) today announced the launch of the new Tarjim service, which allows mobile users to receive translations between Arabic and English of words or phrases.

Users send a phrase or word to a number in one of the languages and receive the translations on their phone. This service is offered in partnership with Sakhr Software Co., operators of www.ajeeb.com, one of the most popular online translation resources in the region.

Mohammed Al Fahim, Etisalat's Executive Vice President for Marketing, said: 'In this multicultural society of ours, this service should be a great help. People would not need to worry about being unable to communicate with someone who does not speak their language, as they could probably just show them their mobile screen with the required query or message. We are sure that this service will see more success than the online option, and would be of particular use to college and university students for their course-work.'

'We are certain of the success of this venture in the UAE due to the excellent reputation enjoyed by Etisalat,' said Fahad Al Sharekh, Business Development Manager, Sakhr Software Co. "The quality of the translation provided by this service is the same exceptional high quality translation available at Ajeeb.com for the translation of texts and websites."

The service offers good value. For a message charged at 60 Fils, the user can send 160 English characters and 70 Arabic characters via SMS to 1001. (Messages over this amount will be considered as multiple messages.) Translations will be sent back to the same number. Tarjim will be available to both prepaid and postpaid mobile subscribers.

The website www.ajeeb.com is the premier multilingual portal in the region that provides translation services between English and Arabic. The website processes more than 2 million word requests a day from 0.5 million users. Their records show that over 3 per cent of these requests are from the UAE.

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De La Salle Brother hails success of SMS truant monitoring

30/11/19

Sydney's De La Salle Bankstown Principal, Br Ambrose Payne, has said the number of unexplained student absences has dropped by half within two weeks of the installation of a system of sending mobile phone text messages to parents of absent students.

Parents receive a text message alert when their their children skip school. In NSW, 35 high schools, including 17 non-government, have installed the program during the past six months.

The system runs in tandem with a 24-hour hotline which parents can SMS or phone to inform the school their child will not be at school the next day.

Attendance rolls are taken each morning and at 10:00 am the system compares the attendance data with the hotline data. If there are any discrepancies, the system sends an automatic SMS message to the phone of the absent student's parents.

Br Payne said the system was particularly useful because it was automated.

"It's non-intrusive, it doesn't require any response from parents but it gives them the opportunity to send a message back to the school or to question their child," he said. "The other great advantage is its immediacy. Normally we'd have to wait to see if the students bring in notes to explain the absence. This is much quicker."

Br Payne said parents had welcomed the initiative, with about 80% actively participating in the scheme.

The program, which is multi-lingual, also sends messages to parents if their child is given a detention, is late for school or skips classes.

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Text messaging popular on the campaign trail

30/11/19

Sending short text messages to drum up support from cellphone users has become a popular campaign tool, as shown in the substantial increase in message transmission last week.
"Last Friday, the day before the nationwide legislative elections on Dec. 11, we saw the usage of short-message service (SMS) double to reach more than 4 million," said Shih Mu-piao, a spokesman for state-run Chunghwa Telecom Co.

With 8.25 million subscribers, Shih said the company records an average of 2 million to 3 million SMS transmissions per day, which means each Chunghwa Telecom user got an average of two messages per week.

Citing the service's convenience and cheaper rates, he said the popular situation of making use of consumer electronic gadgets was also seen in the March presidential elections.

According to Chunghwa Tele-com's statistics, SMS usages show a marked increase starting last Tuesday when 300,000 more short messages were sent than usual, followed the next day with 500,000 more, 1.3 million more on Thursday and a peak of 2 million on Friday.

Taiwan Cellular Corp and Far EasTone Telecommunications Co, decided to avoid politics and declined to sell mass SMS transmission for campaign purposes.

"Unless candidates have obtained detailed information about their constituencies, sending short messages randomly to mobile- phone users would be a waste of money, even though each message costs at most NT$1 through mass transmission," said Far Eas-Tone.spokeswoman Yvonne Lan.

Still, in the runup to election day in March, Taiwan Cellular saw an increase of more than 10 million short messages.

The all-time one-day record for SMS messages this year, however, was the first day of the Lunar New Year on Jan. 22, when 9 million messages were transmitted, Shih said.

The Lunar New Year's eve also saw 8.5 million messages sent by Chunghwa Telecom's subscribers.

Other days with soaring SMS usage include Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve, Valentine's Day and the Mid-Autumn Festival, according to telecom operators.

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Bible verse by text message service relaunched

30/11/19

The Christian thinktank and news provider Ekklesia, has relaunched its daily bible-verse-by-text-message service.

The "Daily Text" initiative was initially launched for UK mobile phone users two years ago, to help Christians gain a moment of reflection in their busy working lives.

The service has now been relaunched, providing cheaper, and now global delivery of a daily bible verse.

Although there are other organisations also running bible-verse-by-text-message services, Ekklesia's service is believed to be the only one run on a not-for-profit basis.

It is possibly the cheapest sms service of its kind anywhere in the world.

Those wanting to get a bible verse on their mobile every morning can do so through the Ekklesia web site, by signing up for a one month, three month or six month period.

Each text costs less than 12p.

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Program That Rewards Customers for Sending Text Messages

30/11/19

Cellular One, a subsidiary of Western Wireless Corporation , a leading provider of wireless communications services to rural America, today announced that it will reward customers of its Hello2Txt text messaging service through a unique loyalty program offered in conjunction with Amazon.com.

The text messaging incentive program, Hello2Txt Club, is the first-of-its-kind in the wireless industry and will reward Cellular One Hello2Txt subscribers for each text message they send from their wireless handsets. Subscribers will automatically earn one point per text message, and the accumulated points may be exchanged for gift certificates redeemable at Amazon.com.

"Cellular One recognizes the popularity of text messaging, and we wanted to say 'thank you' to our loyal customers who have helped make it one of our best-selling wireless features," said Chip Vollers, director of product marketing messaging at Cellular One. "Never before has a wireless company directly rewarded its customers like we are for simply using a wireless feature such as text messaging. Hello2Txt Club is a rewards program, not a sweepstakes or contest."

There is no cost to participate in the Hello2Txt Club loyalty program, although customers must be a Hello2Txt subscriber and must register through the Cellular One Web site (CellularOne.com/TxtClub) to redeem points earned. As a Club member, subscribers will be able to track and redeem points by requesting gift certificates that can be used at Amazon.com. Cellular One customers that sign up for Hello2Txt monthly plans will receive a 250 point bonus. These points will be applied toward the minimum points needed for a gift certificate. A minimum of 500 points is needed to receive a $5 gift certificate, and gift certificates may be requested in $5 increments up to $50.

"Cellular One selected Amazon.com for Hello2Txt Club because their reputation for great customer service and value is similar to our own. Amazon.com has incredible brand-awareness and an immense selection of merchandise that our customers are interested in purchasing," added Vollers.

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Scrooge-Buster - Free Mobile Comparison Shopping Search for Shopaholics

30/11/19

UpSNAP, the leading provider of mobile search services, today announced "Scrooge Buster" a free instant shopping comparison service dedicated to the mobile consumer.

Shoppers simply send a text message with the product make and model, or type in the UPC code right from the barcode on the package. The service then instantly goes out to thousands of merchants and searches for the cheapest available alternative, as well as the major stores such as WalMart, Sears & CompUSA etc.

Consumers can compare prices without having to leave the store, and can even be automatically call connected to the merchant with the cheapest price to place the order by mobile phone. Best of all the service not only saves you time and money, but is absolutely free, save for any text messaging charges from your mobile operator.

"In the Internet world, we are all used to comparison shopping services, where cheaper prices are just a click away," said Tony Philipp, President and CEO of UpSNAP! "UpSNAP! now allows mobile consumers to search and connect with the cheapest merchants just by using a normal cellular phone. Our service works with over 160 million mobile consumers in the United States. Cheaper prices are now just a text and phone call away."
The "Scrooge Buster" service works by logging onto the web site at http://www.upsnap.com/ from your PC at home. A text message is then sent to the cell phone to activate the service. Consumers can now reply to this message with the model make and brand of a product to instantly receive free comparison shopping wherever they are in the United States. Consumers do not need an "Internet" phone or a browser, or any special settings or complicated software downloads. The U.S. accounts for more than 160 million mobile consumers and 2.5 billion mobile text messages sent each month, making the cell phone by far the most personal communication device for consumers and the most-coveted media platform for advertisers, according to the Mobile Marketing Association. UpSNAP! plans to introduce many new features, applications and enhanced services over the next several months.

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Timetables by text mean you'll never miss the bus

30/11/19

Passengers will no longer face an uncertain wait for the next bus once a scheme to send timetables by text-message is introduced across Edinburgh next year.

The text service is being offered to mobile phone subscribers in a venture involving local bus operators, the council and the Traveline transport information service.

The scheme is being tested on Lothian Buses’ No 23 route between Greenbank and Trinity and is scheduled to be expanded to the rest of the city in 2005.

Andrew Burns, head of Edinburgh council transport, said: "Providing a text message service with bus arrival times will save regular bus users a lot of time."

Buses are being issued with an special code and passengers can telephone Traveline to find out when the next five buses will arrive and where they’ll be heading.

John Elliot, chief executive of Traveline Scotland, said: "This is an exciting development for customers who need timetable information on the move and for users of mobile phones who find this the most convenient way to get bus times."

The service operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and will be extended to local bus operators First Edinburgh and Stagecoach.

For information on bus times, call Traveline on: 0870 608 2608 or log on to www.txt2traveline.com

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Online Ski Magazine Adds Free Snow Alerts via SMS to Its List of Information Services

30/11/19

Internet ski-zine First Tracks!! Online (www.FirstTracksOnline.com) announced this week the addition of free "Powderhound Snow Alerts" to its list of user services. Skiers and snowboarders may choose to receive, free of charge, SMS text messages direct to their mobile phones, alerting them to new snowfall at up to 478 ski and snowboard resorts across the United States and Canada. Users without cell phones may choose to have the alerts delivered to any email address instead.

"We're excited to be able to let folks know where the snow falls, when the snow falls, wherever they are," says First Tracks!! Online Ski Magazine Editor and Publisher, Marc Guido. "We've forged a strategic partnership with technology provider rubberSNOW to let our readers ride the cutting edge of snow condition reporting."

By visiting www.FirstTracksOnline.com/powderhoundalerts.shtm, skiers and riders first choose their favorite mountain resorts across North America, then fully customize their alert settings. Users may choose to receive an alert only after an amount of snow falls that they themselves select. Users may also choose quiet times, delivery days and times, and even the maximum number of messages to receive daily. As an added bonus provided by First Tracks!! Online, users may even choose to receive important breaking Eastern Ski Resort News, Western Ski Resort News, World Cup Alpine Skiing and/or World Cup Snowboard news via its Powderhound alert system as well. Perhaps best of all, like all of First Tracks!! Online Ski Magazine's content, the service is provided free of charge to its users.

"Technology has finally developed to the point that we can let our magazine's readers know that a foot of snow has fallen at their favorite mountain, no matter where they are," says Guido. "All they need to do is throw their gear into the car and go!"

Guido promises that user information, including cell phone numbers and email addresses, will be held in the strictest of confidence. "We've built our reputation on integrity, and we're not about to destroy that now," Guido says. "First Tracks!! Online and rubberSNOW are committed to it. We promise not to ever disclose the personal information of our users, and we won't rent, sell or trade cell phone numbers. Folks are safe with us."

The Powderhound Snow Alert service's iron-clad privacy policy is provided online for review at the time of signup.

Powderhound Snow Alerts are but a fraction of the media content offered to First Tracks!! Online Ski Magazine's readers. Started in a spare bedroom in Guido's Upstate New York home in 1994, First Tracks!! Online has now grown to over 13,000 web pages on its site. Reader traffic peaks at over 3 million page hits monthly.

"It's been a wild ride,like a snowball rolling down a hill," Guido jokes. "We were around at the birth of the World Wide Web, even before the widespread deployment of graphical Internet browsers. Back then, everything was visible in plain text only, and First Tracks!! Online was little more than a hobby site. Never in our wildest dreams did we envision the success that our magazine would achieve!"

First Tracks!! Online has eschewed the restraints inherent to a print publication, and functions entirely as an online periodical. Readers browsing www.FirstTracksOnline.com will find up-to-the-minute Ski and Snowboard News, resort features, a vibrant community forum for users, streaming online ski and snowboard videos, equipment reviews, and even technique tips to get the most out of skiing and snowboarding. Snow condition information is augmented by a real-time weather data center and insight from First Tracks!! Online's own staff weather forecaster, Scott Braaten. The site's content is entirely supported by advertisers, allowing snow junkies to get their fix 12 months a year free of charge.

Guido, however, is never satisfied with the status quo. "If there's something else that adds value to our users, we'll do it," he says. "Our staffers are all passionate skiers and riders, so we just ask ourselves, 'What would we want to know?'"

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Nokia Targets Fake Phone Batteries

30/11/19

Nokia has launched a program to help consumers spot counterfeit mobile phone batteries. The company has begun labeling batteries with holographic labels containing a series of symbols and a 20-digit authentication code hidden under a scratch-off area.

Buyers will be able to verify the code through a special battery check web page or by sending an SMS message. While batteries with the hologram label are already being produced, Nokia will continue to sell labeled and unlabeled batteries until the transition is complete. Batteries in new phone packages and those sold separately will be labeled.

The company hopes to reduce the danger posed by counterfeit batteries, which sometimes leak or explode while in use. Nokia will also work with law enforcement agencies to target counterfeiters selling non-original Nokia products.

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How to get BBC Sport on your Mobile

30/11/19

If you have a WAP-compatible mobile phone, follow these simple instructions to be automatically sent a link to the BBC Sport WAP site.

Text the word SPORT to 88822
The BBC will send you a text message (service text message) within 5 mins.

In most cases, the message will arrive in your normal text message inbox.

However, some phones have a WAP Push inbox where the service message will be stored. This can often be found under the Services menu item.

When the message arrives, you should open it and select the link.
The link address may look like a normal internet address.

It will prompt you to make a connection.

You should select Yes.

You're in! BBC Sport on WAP is updated every minute of every day in the same way as the website.
Don't forget to save a bookmark to the site on your phone.

If you are not sure how to do that, consult your phone's handbook.


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China on track for 220bn SMS year

30/11/19

CHINA'S mobile phone users sent 176 billion short messages in the first 10 months of this year, according to figures released by the country's Ministry of Information Industry.

By the end of the year the number of text messages will exceed 220 billion, an increase of about 50 billion year-on-year, Xinhua news agency quoted the ministry as saying.

Calculated at a rate of 0.1 yuan (1.6c) per text message, the business generated a total of 17.6 billion yuan by the end of October, a ministry official said.

"Mobile phone short messages have been the pillar for value-added transactions in the mobile industry," said the official, who declined to be named.

"And various new businesses and applications are emerging in succession."

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Product reviews could be texted to you in shop

30/11/19

Walking into a branch of Dixons or Comet in the run-up to Christmas can be daunting.

Long before irate fathers have to make their post-Christmas trips to buy batteries, the choice of which music system, television set or other appliance to buy for family and friends can leave unprepared shoppers at the mercy of ruthless salespeople.

It would be nice to think that we all do our shopping fully appraised of the choices on offer, but the truth is that most of us have maybe one model in mind — and if that is out of stock, we flounder.

This is where a quick text message could prove a life-saver. There are not many shops that have copies of What Hi-Fi or Which? lying around, so a text-message service that allowed customers to send off an appliance’s make and model number and receive a quick review within a couple of minutes would surely be popular.

The technology exists in services such as 82ask, which gives out general information on request and was recently reviewed in these pages. It allows users to fire questions from their phones (to number 82275) and get a fast response.

“We get loads of requests at this time of year for the best or cheapest Playstation or DVD player, so I think there would be demand for this,” said Sarah McVittie, founder and chief executive of Re5ult, the company that runs the 82ask service.

“We have a combination of clever technology and human researchers. The systems learn to categorise requests and will automatically send answers to repeat questions.

“However, people do tend to be very specific with their questions and it is important to have a human being there to deal with follow-up requests.”

Re5ult employs almost 50 researchers, but a service that gave technical specifications and consumer reviews would have the potential to be much more automated than a general-information provider. So the challenge for a new service would be to secure the co-operation of consumer magazines that could provide authoritative reviews.

Google is already rolling out a text-message service that allows users to compare the prices of products sold over the internet with prices in the shops. At the moment this is available only in America via its Froogle service.

So why not go a step further and provide an entire review?

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WRC teams up with Premium TV for broadband drive

30/11/19

The World Rally Championship has teamed up with sports content company Premium TV to offer its fans exclusive broadband and mobile access to the motor sport.

This is the first global deal for Premium TV, which currently looks after broadband and mobile content for 83 UK football clubs.

Premium will create a new new web platform, WRC+, to provide broadband subscribers with video highlights, driver interviews, car statistics, virtual spectator coverage and live audio.

The WRC+ mobile content offers video footage of stage highlights and driver interviews. Products under development include a news and results SMS service, wallpapers and subscription services for 3G enabled handsets.

As part of the deal, Premium will revamp the existing WRC website, build a new broadband subscription website and develop new mobile products.

Premium TV will create a number of exclusive advertising opportunities that will sit across WRC.com, offering brands the opportunity to partner with a major global franchise.

The website already attracts more 10m page views a month and has the potential for significant growth.

The website and products will launch in January 2005.

Since its launch four years ago, Premium TV has pioneered the sports and entertainment content business supplying broadband, 3G, commercial and subscription products and services to the sports industry and Europe’s leading media and entertainment companies.

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Hi, ths is ur bnk mgr spkn

30/11/19

WAT evr nxt? The joy of text is to be further expanded with one bank’s business and personal customers able to do their daily banking by SMS.

Lloyds TSB Scotland aims to keep its customers up do date with their finances by sending regular messages informing them of their account status. The new service will inform subscribers of their current account balance as well as a list of their last six transactions.

Personal customers who sign up for the service will receive text updates once a week on the day and time of their choosing.

Lloyds TSB is the first bank to offer the text service to business customers, who can get daily updates on their accounts between 7am and 10am.

The growth in the use of mobile phones has been phenomenal, with 40 million Britons now owning one. Britain has also embraced the text message culture since the first message was sent in 1992 and we now send more than 2 billion every month.

Experts predict that this Hogmanay we could send the largest number of messages in one day, beating the previous record of 111 million last New Year’s Day.

Banks are only the latest group to take advantage of the modern phenomenon of text. TV programmes gain viewers’ opinions and reality shows such as Big Brother get viewers to vote by text message.

The first local elections in the UK that allowed votes to be cast by text message took place in May 2002 when Sheffield and Liverpool residents had the option of voting by text as part of a wave of 30 innovative electoral pilots aimed at encouraging voting.

Three weeks ago, Tony Blair became the first UK prime minister to use text messages to speak directly to the public - answering questions submitted in advance by text.

Lisa Stephenson, customer, wealth and marketing director for Lloyds TSB Scotland, said: "As a nation on the move, time is at a premium and our need for information is increasing.

"This new free text alert service will allow customers to get hold of the information they need, wherever and whenever they want it, whether they’re in a high street store or up Ben Nevis."

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BPL MOBILE, MSN INDIA AND MOBILE 365 BRING MOBILITY TO SUBSCRIBERS IN INDIA

30/11/19

Now over 2.4 million BPL Mobile subscribers can access MSN Hotmail and MSN Messenger over SMS anytime, anywhere

Singapore, December 21, 2004 - MSN India, a leading online destination featuring more than 360 million users worldwide, and Mobile 365 (newly merged Mobileway-InphoMatch) today further extend their relationship in Asia by forging a strategic mobile alliance with BPL Mobile, India's best and most trusted mobile phone service provider. Starting today, over 2.4 million BPL Mobile subscribers across Mumbai, Maharashtra, Goa, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry will be able to access their Hotmail e-mails and chat with their MSN buddies on SMS anywhere, anytime.

Called Mobile-mail, BPL Mobile subscribers will be able to access their MSN Hotmail accounts via two-way short message service (SMS). With this service, users of MSN Hotmail will have the option to receive email sent to their MSN Hotmail accounts by SMS on their mobile phones-whenever and wherever they are. They will also be able to reply to those email messages directly to the sender's inbox via SMS, as well as perform other common tasks directly from their phone.

BPL Mobile subscribers will also be able to send and receive messages using MSN Messenger via a mobile phone. The "MSN Messenger over SMS" service is a form of two-way SMS that enables users and their MSN Messenger buddies to keep in touch with each other via a PC and any mobile phone that supports the SMS technology.

When a user is logged on to MSN Messenger on a PC, he/she can keep in touch with family and friends via their mobile phone simply by creating and saving a mobile MSN Messenger number for each of their buddies.

"From now on, BPL Mobile subscribers can use their mobile phones to access their personal email accounts and connect with their online buddies anytime, anyplace, and while on the move," said Mr. Krishna Angara, Executive VP-Business Operations, BPL Mobile.

"BPL Mobile leads the market in offering our subscribers the latest innovations and newest technologies to enhance their handset experience. Mobile-mail revolutionises the way our subscribers keep in contact with friends, relatives, and business associates-they no longer need to sit in front of their computers to wait for email to download. `MSN Messenger over SMS' greatly enriches our messaging service portfolio, offering an effective way for our subscribers to manage personal communications while away from the office or home," added Mr. Angara.

The services, which have been immensely popular and successful since their launch across Asia, will present BPL Mobile additional sources of revenues while rendering more competitive and compelling mobile services to its over 2.4 million subscribers, thereby increasing customer loyalty.

"MSN India and Mobile 365 are bridging three popular and widely used communication tools-the mobile phone in combination with MSN Hotmail and Messenger-to enable on-the-go consumers in Asia to keep in touch with those most important to them," said Rohit Dadwal, Head, CSMP, South Asia, MSN. "The youth market in India, in particular, is burgeoning furiously. Mobility, flexibility, and connectivity are central to Indian lives today. The alliance with BPL and Mobile 365-which provides us more 150 direct connections with mobile operators worldwide-extends our capability to offer mobile carriers the capacity to provide their consumers with access to MSN Hotmail and Messenger anywhere in the world," he added.

"India, the world's second-largest mobile market after China, presents exciting opportunities for companies seeking entry into the country," said Matthew Talbot, Managing Director, Mobile 365 Asia. "The youth market consists of a sizeable group-the majority of people below 25 years of age are tremendously mobile phone savvy. For the youth, possessing a mobile phone is, in some ways, a status symbol. For business professionals, it is a business lifeline, and a hefty chunk of business is transacted via mobile devices. SMS, in particular, has been one of the biggest mobile service successes to date."

According to Gartner Group, the number of mobile phones in India is expected to exceed fixed lines by the end of 2004 or early 2005. Growth is expected to continue based on increased use of SMS for text-based information or entertainment services on demand, games, and marketing.

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Telstra advises customers to ignore (another) SMS hoax

30/11/19

Telstra today advised customers to ignore a hoax SMS promising a AU$200 credit if they forward the message on to 10 people.

Telstra Head of Consumer Marketing, Jenny Young, said that the message was not sent by Telstra and encouraged customers to simply delete the message.

"There is no truth to the message that by forwarding the SMS on, customers will receive a $200 credit from Telstra," Ms Young said. "We want to dispel this myth before it spreads widely.

"Telstra does not condone these annoying chain letter style spam messages but, unfortunately, Telstra cannot prevent these messages from starting."

Telstra does not know who started the SMS hoax or their motivation for doing so.

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TECNOMEN´S MISSED CALL NOTICE DEPLOYED BY MOBILKOM AUSTRIA

30/11/19

Austria´s leading mobile operator, has launched Tecnomen´s Missed Call Notice to more than 3 million subscribers. Missed Call Notice alerts subscribers about calls diverted to voice mail and the caller does not leave a message. With Missed Call Notice, mobilkom austria can provide customers with an easy-to-use, innovative service, which helps manage their personal communication.

Tecnomen has developed a wide range of voice mail services in response to operators´ needs to increase voice mail and other voice services usage and revenues. Missed Call Notice keeps track of missed calls, noting the caller's number, and the time and date of the call, and delivers this information by SMS. Missed Call Notice also keeps track of the number of times the person has called as well as information about the first and last call made.

"Resulting from our long-term, close co-operation with Tecnomen, we can rely on the maturity of their solution and on their flexibility. In today´s hectic life, we are happy to launch this new service to help our customers in their daily communications", says Alexander Kuchar, Head of Division, Mobile Service Network, mobilkom austria.

"Tecnomen has accompanied mobilkom austria from the very beginning on its road as the innovative market leader in Austria. We are very proud to help mobilkom austria to launch this enhanced service offering to their customers," says Mr Eero Mertano, Vice President, Sales, Tecnomen. "Missed Call Notice is really an easy-to-use, mass market service. It is an addition to the phone´s missed call function as notification is provided even if the phone is out of coverage or turned off, or if the line is busy."

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Philippine Mobile Phone Companies Block International SMS

30/11/19

Bandar Seri Begawan - Mobile phone users in the country should refrain from sending text messages to the Philippines for the time being as intended recipients will not be able to receive them, though messages sent will still be charged accordingly.

According to DST Communications, mobile phone service providers in the Philippines have blocked messages from other countries.

"Call phone users in the Philippines and ask them to find out from their mobile phone service providers why international messages are blocked," advised a staff who manned the enquiry desk.

Another staff at the help desk speculated that the lack of short messaging service was due to the technical breakdown encountered by Philippine mobile phone service providers.

Mobile phone users said until the problem has been rectified, everyone must refrain from sending messages to the Philippines to prevent being charged for failed services.

They also hoped that DST Communications would find out the reason behind the country blocking all international messages.

"We have yet to receive responses from the Philippines," said local users. "Until then, refrain from sending text messages to the Philippines."

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Fixed line SMS nears

30/11/19

TELSTRA customers could soon be sending text messages to mobile phones from their conventional landline phones.

The carrier has revealed its plan to introduce SMS capability to its fixed line network early in 2005.

Telstra hopes to harness the popularity of text message service among mobile users to boost revenue for its PSTN network.

"With more than 100 million SMS already sent by Telstra customers each month, we anticipate fixed SMS will trigger a new wave of text message popularity," Telstra Voice and Convergence managing director, Lynda O'Grady said.

A spokesman for Telstra said the carrier expected to charge its standard SMS rates of around 25 cents per message for the fixed line service. He said there would be no fee to activate the service.

AustralianIT understands that Telstra has aborted three attempts to launch the service and the next available opportunity to launch the service would occur in February next year.

Telstra peer-to-peer messaging group manager, Damien Chappell, said Telstra inter-connect negotiations with wholesale customers and other carriers were still ongoing in November, trailing distributor Tech Pacific's release of two branded cordless handsets designed to support the service.

According to Telstra, the service will be easy to use for anyone familiar with conventional mobile SMS.

Rival carrier Optus said last month that its customers were not interested in fixed line SMS services.

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SMS delays due to volume surge during festive season: SingTel

30/11/19

Did you have difficulty sending out SMS messages on Christmas Eve or Friday morning? Well, you weren't alone.

SingTel subscribers had called the MediaCorp hotline to complain of intermittent delays.

SingTel said this was due to a high volume of SMS messages being sent due to the festive season.

It said the problem had been fixed and things were back to normal.

But some customers had expressed concerns there could be a repeat of the problem on Friday night and on New Year's Eve.

What do the telcos themselves have to say about this problem?

M1's advice to subcribers is not to wait till the last minute to send out their festive greetings.

But StarHub and SingTel say they have expanded their systems to cope with the expected increase in SMS traffic.

SingTel has the market share of some 1.5 million subscribers, with M1 a close second with a million users.

SingTel says there is usually a surge in SMS traffic during the festive season.

Last year, traffic went up by 65% on Christmas Eve, and some 30% on Christmas Day itself.

This time round, the telcos are expecting at least a 20% increase in volume.

They are having their engineers on standby for any network congestion.

Nine in 10 people in Singapore have a mobile phone.

To beat the congestion blues, 29-year-old Vincent Kang has been busy sending short messages or SMS-es to his friends and relatives.

"If they are going to expand the network for the peak periods, it's not going to be cost-effective. It would increase cost. I'd rather leave it as it is. If you want to send a text message, do it early," said Vincent Kang.

But most users say they will try to SMS their way around the possible congestion.

"It's very difficult, everyone's messaging, the system would definitely jam," said one user.

"Bear with it....it's like Christmas Day, everyone's sending messages, just a one-day delay, it's okay," said another.

"The delay might irritate some people," said a third.

"Today's the day everyone wants to wish their loved ones. It would be good if we can get wider coverage of the network and messages flow without interruption," said a fourth.

But in a worst-case scenario, "you can use the handphone to call, not sms," said a user.

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Haj Guidelines Through SMS Planned

30/11/19

The Ministry of Islamic Affairs will take over direct supervision of new Haj programs this coming year, according to the President of the King Fahd Holy Qur’an Gift Committee, Talal Al-Akeel. The programs were sponsored last year by Makkah Governor Prince Abdul Majeed.

Al-Akeel said that under the new programs guidelines will be provided to all pilgrims arriving with their mobile phones by means of SMS messages. A welcoming SMS message will be sent in the first instance followed by some of the Prophet’s sayings in the second message.

He said that more than two million books and audiotapes will be distributed among pilgrims at the airport and seaport in 23 languages such as English, Arabic, French, Dutch, German, Persian, Chinese and Urdu. Also, more than two million copies of the Holy Qur’an will be given away to pilgrims when they leave the country.

He added that more than 1,000 distribution points would be set up on the streets of Makkah and 50 along the highway

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Telstra unveils plans to launch fixed line SMS technology

30/11/19

Telstra has recently unveiled plans to launch an Australian first in text messaging technology, with the introduction of a ‘Fixed SMS service’ early 2005.

The company expects that with the launch, the traditional home phone would experience a major makeover and anticipates the new service to trigger a new wave of text messaging popularity.

Telstra has a branded SMS capable cordless phone on sale in its shops and through its dealers. The company further informs that standard charges would apply for sending an SMS from a fixed-line phone and that there will be no charge to receive messages.

The upcoming launch of Fixed SMS follows the introduction of ‘Talking Text’ in March 2004 allowing SMS messages sent from Telstra mobiles to be translated to a voice message on most Telstra home phones.

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Dead woman's father urges safety

30/11/19

Ms Blackman's remains were found seven months after she vanished
The father of a Kent woman who vanished in Tokyo in 2000 has urged young people to join his safety text scheme while socialising this Christmas.
Tim Blackman's 21-year-old daughter Lucie was drugged, raped and murdered.

Her father, 51, of the Isle of Wight, said the scheme let people send a delayed message if they felt unsafe.

The text message is stored for up to 24 hours, which the user cancels if they arrive safely. If they do not arrive, the message is sent to raise the alarm.

Lucie Blackman was working as a nightclub hostess in the Roppongi district of Tokyo when she vanished in July 2000.

The former flight attendant, from Sevenoaks, had told a room-mate she was going to the seaside, but did not say who with. It was the last time anyone heard from her.

Her dismembered body was found in February 2001 after a seven-month search.

Japanese property developer Joji Obara, 52, went on trial last year accused of abduction, rape and disposal of the body, as well as attacks on other women - he denies all charges.

Lucie's father said: "Here is a device that people should use as a way to make sure that if something happened to them, somebody would know where to start looking.

"Don't think 'oh well, it won't happen to me', because it can happen to you."

He said the text scheme would have allowed his daughter to be found in seven hours rather than seven months.

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SMS 'fun calls service' banned

30/11/19

A special SMS message service set up to encourage boys and girls to make fun calls to each other has been banned because it contravenes Islamic values.

"Outraged parents telephoned me and voiced their discontent after the company flooded them with SMS messages on their mobile phones," said MP and Al Menbar National Islamic Bloc member Mohammed Khalid.

"Such SMS promotional adverts are in total breach of our constitution, customs and traditions and represent an outrageous misuse of modern telecommunications technology."On Wednesday, Mr Khalid contacted Commerce Minister Ali Saleh Al Saleh who instructed Consumer Protection Directorate Director Mohammed Ajour to order the telecommunications company responsible to stop promoting the service. Mr Khalid said the company had apparently launched the new service in a bid to broaden its base of young consumers. He vowed to raise the issue at parliament unless the company complied with the order.

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SMS not from Astro

30/11/19

Astro said an SMS message warning road users not to use the Penang Bridge did not originate from Astro news.

In a statement, it said the SMS message had read: “Do not go to seaside or cross the Penang bridge between 7pm to 8pm. EARTHQUAKE may happen again... fr ASTRO News Pls. inform others” was untrue.

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Mobile Users Welcome Return Of SMS To Philippines

30/11/19

Bandar Seri Begawan - Local mobile phone users thanked relevant parties after the return of short message service between Brunei Darussalam and the Philippines since a few days ago.

They said the service returned last Thursday bringing Christmas joy to celebrants here who wanted to share their happiness with their loved ones in the Philippines.

"Thank you very much as we are able to exchange text messages with our loved ones in the Philippines commencing last Thursday, two days before Christmas Day," said local mobile phone users.

Last Wednesday, the Bulletin highlighted the frustration of local users who had not been able to send or receive messages to and from their loved ones in the Philippines.

Many users sent many messages to their loved ones in the Philippines without being able to get any response.

Similarly, their loved ones in the Philippines were also not able to send messages to them in Brunei.

"I sent many messages to the Philippines without realising that the messages could not be received there.

"I was charged accordingly and the messages showed that they have been sent to the Philippines," said a user.

According to DST Communications, the mobile phone service providers in the Philippines could have blocked the international messages from being received by their users.

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arosa Actively Offers Mobile Content Services that Interact with TV

30/11/19

Index Corporation (President: Yoshimi Ogawa; head office: Setagaya-ku, Tokyo; hereinafter referred to as "Index Corp."), a global provider of mobile and media services, announced that it has decided to invest in Yarosa Entertainment B.V. (CEO: Derk Nijssen; headquarters: Rotterdam, the Netherlands; hereinafter referred to as "Yarosa"), an SMS-TV application and solution provider. By utilizing Yarosa's technological know-how and content assets, Index Corp. will promote TV-interactive contents and special television events for mobile phones.
In Europe, content-related services utilizing Short Message Service (SMS) are becoming increasingly widespread. In particular, a TV-interactive service "SMS-TV" is recently experiencing rapid growth. With SMS codes indicated on TV screens, the service allows viewers to participate directly in the programming and purchase contents via mobile phones. For example, using SMS, viewers can submit answers to quiz shows, play real-time interactive games on the screen, cast votes in selection programs and receive other TV-interactive content services.

The introduction of SMS-TV is seen as a relevant and reliable financial source. Since it provides a new means to deal in mobile contents and generates further benefits by raising viewer ratings, the service is actively promoted by TV stations internationally.
According to McKinsey's report, in 2003, approximately 900 million SMS messages were exchanged through TV related services in Europe. The European SMS market generated more than 400 million euros in 2003, which is expected to grow to 750 million euros in 2004.

Index Corp., having seen the great potential of TV-interactive contents through the success of Index Group companies engaged in the business, such as 123 Multimedia (Toulouse, France), Index Europe (Paris, France) and Mobliss (Seattle, US), has made the investment in Yarosa to strengthen its business in this field.

Possessing SMS-TV game formats which are indispensable to TV-interactive content services, and extremely sophisticated SMS/MMS processing technologies, Yarosa has attained top-level achievement in its field of business. The company offers its services to countries around the world, including England, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Portugal, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, the Ukraine, the Middle East, India, Malaysia, the Philippines, Poland, South America, and Russia.

With Yarosa joining the Index Group of companies, Index Corp. will further strengthen its TV-interactive mobile content offerings and share its know-how and technologies related to TV-interactive services. By doing so, Index Corp. aims to achieve the world's leading position in the field.

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Wireless World: The 'Orange Revolution'

30/11/19

CHICAGO -- The court-ordered election rematch in Ukraine this past Sunday, featuring opposition presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, probably would not have happened were it not for mobile phone technologies.

The technologies -- text messaging services in particular -- enabled hundreds of thousands of youthful demonstrators to coordinate their activities and take to the streets of Kiev to contest the November election results, experts told UPI's Wireless World.

"The most significant aspect of this thing is the mobilization of the population," said Lubomyr Hajda, associate director of Harvard's Ukrainian Research Institute in Cambridge, Mass. "It led to the birth of a civic nation, not an ethnic nation."

In Kiev's central district, young college students employed the short-messaging service text-messaging tool on their mobile phones to tell a dozen friends to bring their friends to Independence Square.

"It's called smart-mobbing," said Bob Ewald, senior director of product marketing for Nextel. "Text messages are sent out to folks and they all come to a specified location."

The technologies were sold by an array of European and American developers, including Zi Corp., which makes short messaging service software for 43 different languages and more than 600 mobile phone handsets.

"Ukrainian is one of their newest offerings," said a Zi spokesman in New York City.

Technology and democracy experts said Ukraine's Orange Revolution, as the movement is called, is the second democratic uprising in just three years empowered by mobile phone technologies.

"In the Philippines in 2001, a spontaneous crowd enabled by text messengers converged on the city square to protest President Estrada's corrupt government and ended up bringing it down," said Gloria Pan, a spokeswoman for The Media Center, a think tank at the American Press Institute in Reston, Va., that concentrates on the intersection of media, society and technology. "Talk about exercising democratic rights."

The popularity of text-messaging software in Europe is based on a number of factors. In the United States, the calling party pays for a mobile phone call, but in Europe, the receiving party pays the fee.

"It's cheaper to send text messages rather than call someone," Ewald said. "Billions of messages are sent on a monthly basis in this way."

Text messaging also is faster and more convenient than leaving a lengthy voice-mail message.

The technologies are favored particularly by U.S. and European college students, said Kristin Wallace, a spokeswoman in Atlanta for Sprint. "We started offering text messaging in January of 2004. It's very popular among college age people and teenagers."

The story is quite similar in Ukraine, which has seen a number of youth uprisings recently.

"What happened in November did not happen out of the blue," said Hajda, who recently participated in a seminar on the Orange Revolution and factors that facilitated it at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. "It has not been noticed by the people writing about the election."

Pan said blogs were the big news of 2004. "The next big story will be mobility," she said.

Hajda, who is Ukrainian and was trained as a historian, said there were regional protests this past summer, stirred after the government instituted a policy that increased the expenses of students. Eventually, the government rescinded the decree.

Another protest about two years ago drew between 50,000 and 100,000 to Kiev. A protest in 2001 drew 20,000 and sparked government violence against the protestors.

"An important part was played by the youths," Hajda said.

Other factors included a national religious revival among the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, as well as a burgeoning, society-wide free-speech movement.

The government reportedly stopped many trains from running to the capital in Kiev, attempting to prevent the protesters from massing. There have been estimates reported in the international media that upwards of 500,000 pro-democracy protesters met in Kiev after the disputed presidential election, with youths taking to the streets wearing orange garb -- which spawned the name Orange Revolution.

"They came and went in small groups," Hajda said. "They were not there all at the same time," with many sleeping in sprawling tent camps along the main street of the city.

Mobile text-messaging technology allowed the demonstrators to coordinate shifts to keep the pressure on the Parliament and the courts.

"There was a lot of talk about technology," Hajda said.

Text-messaging in the United States probably will approach by next year levels of usage currently experienced in Europe, Ewald said. Mobile phone carriers, including T-Mobile, Sprint and Nextel, last year signed an interconnect agreement that allows messages sent from a mobile phone on one carrier's network to be received on any carrier's network. A message is transmitted by sending it to a person's phone number, where it is presented to the recipient on the screen display.

If Yushchenko wins the Dec. 26 ballot -- as preliminary results indicated Monday -- he has promised to seek European Union membership for Ukraine. The country culturally already is quite close to Europe in some ways because of its reliance on mobile technologies.

"I was in Scotland last year and television programs and ads regularly incorporated text messaging," said Mark Pruner, vice president of RD Legal Funding LLC, in Englewood, N.J., an international legal consulting firm. "You could vote for who was the better singer, who should get kicked out of a reality TV show, enter contests or send in comments. In Portugal (short messaging services are) very common. In the United Kingdom, it is even used to meet people in bars."

Now, in Ukraine, the technology has been used to choose a new president.

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So far, so good for wireless data in 2004

30/11/19

The Yankee Group 2004 Mobile User Survey shows that awareness of wireless data services skyrocketed during the past year

Based on carrier reporting and the results of our 2004 Mobile User Survey, this year has been a good year in wireless data. By the end of the second quarter of 2004, wireless data users totaled almost 47 million (or more than one-quarter of the total wireless subscriber base), up more than 58% from 29 million in mid-2003. Wireless data revenue in the second quarter of 2004 approached $1 billion, up 160% from roughly $367 million for the second quarter of 2003. By year-end 2004, we anticipate almost one-third of wireless users will be using wireless data and annual revenue will top $4 billion.

Wireless data constitutes nearly 4% of total service revenue and is still virtually a rounding error for most carriers. However, carriers such as Sprint are driving substantially more. Trends in consumer awareness levels are even more compelling than the 2004 growth figures. Our 2004 Mobile User Survey showed that awareness levels around wireless data services skyrocketed during the past year, particularly around more mature services (e.g., text messaging and ringtones. Further, when considering the trends in the youth market -- a trailblazing segment in terms of both awareness and use -- the outlook is good.

Trend Impact

Building awareness of wireless data is the first step in driving market adoption. For those consumers who do not use wireless data, the primary obstacle to adoption is the lack of a clear value proposition. Other obstacles to adoption, particularly within younger segments, include pricing and services availability (i.e., handsets, breadth of data services available on some prepaid packages). Despite these hurdles, nearly 75% of all respondents from our 2004 survey indicated that if they had another $5 to $10 of disposable income to spend on wireless data, they would be willing to spend it. The results also show that there is no single killer app in wireless data. If carriers -- in partnership with their vendors and content provider partners -- can focus on improving the user experience, delivering targeted content and apps that appeal to a diverse customer base, and addressing pricing- and availability-related issues for select segments, the near-term prospects look good.

In September, the Yankee Group completed its U.S. wireless consumer applications forecast. By 2008, we expect consumer data ARPU as a contribution of total ARPU will grow more than threefold to 12% and the annual consumer data services market will reach nearly $14 billion. Messaging will decrease as a proportion of the total, with real growth coming from information and entertainment services.

Carrier Recommendations

-- In partnership with their vendor and content provider partners, carriers need to build more value around wireless data. Consistent with past surveys, the biggest obstacle to adoption is the lack of a clear value proposition (58% of non-users say that they don't want wireless data). During the past year, carriers delivered more content and applications. However, they must zero in on the distinct value propositions for different segments and ensure they don't overpromise and underdeliver.

-- For older adults, productivity is most important. E-mail, wireless web/browsing and location-based services, such as people finder, resonate most with this group.

-- For teens, it's about staying connected and communicating with friends and family. Teens are the most active texters (more than half are active users) and expressed a willingness to spend more (with their parents' funding, of course) on messaging (text, mobile IM and pictures).

-- Young adults want a balance of the two, demonstrating strongest interest in personalization/self-expression and communications or staying connected. The applications that resonate most for additional spending are ringtones, text messaging and people finder.

-- Because there is no killer app in wireless data, carriers must ensure they can partner with content providers and vendors to deliver a wide array of applications and content. They should provide content that appeals to different demographic and lifestyle segments, including big brands and niche, localized content.

-- Realign pricing to attract consumers who still feel that wireless data is out of reach. Twenty-three percent of young adults who are not using wireless data indicated it primarily was because the service is too expensive. As the value leader, T-Mobile is well positioned within this segment. Sprint has achieved the leadership position in wireless data ARPU. However, it should consider adding more options (beyond its current one-size-fits-all packaging) to reach more wallet-conscious segments.

-- Prepaid carriers and service providers should bolster their wireless data portfolios. Subsegments of this market, including the youth segment, show a willingness to pay but may be hindered by availability.

-- Carriers should continue to focus on the holistic wireless data experience. Our survey continually shows that wireless data and advanced services do not rank highly when choosing a service provider or when switching service providers. Carriers must break down application silos (browsing, messaging, downloads, etc.) and focus on creating an easy-to-find (discoverability), easy-to-use and integrated experience for the consumer (e.g., handset, usability). If a carrier can do something different and improve the customer experience, wireless data has the potential to become a point of differentiation.

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SMS & scurry for ministers

30/11/19

When the mobiles beeped around 7 am today to announce an SMS, some officials in the disaster management division of the home ministry felt things could not be bad because of a quake in distant Indonesia.

When they reached office in an hour, the officials knew they were wrong.

Panic buttons had been pressed, an alert sounded and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh updated on the crisis along India’s southern and eastern coast. By afternoon, Union home minister Shivraj Patil put the toll tentatively at 1,000 but it was clear that the figure could rise.

Patil said Tamil Nadu was the “worst affected”, Andhra Pradesh came next. The coastal areas of Bengal were also hit, but he had not been able to contact chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, according to the home ministry.

India was not the only one caught off guard by the tsunami — a phenomenon common around Japan where it got its name. Thailand, Sri Lanka and Maldives were among the countries affected.

As he came on television, the Prime Minister promised to help the country’s neighbours to tide over the crisis.

Two ships had been dispatched with relief material to Colombo and Singh had made an offer of assistance to Thailand, Maldives and Indonesia.

“India stands ready to assist these friendly nations, should our help be required.”

Two Union ministers — Mani Shankar Aiyar and Dayanidhi Maran — were deputed to oversee relief and rescue work in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Pondicherry and the Andamans.

Patil, who as home minister is responsible for coordinating relief and rescue missions, left for the affected districts for a first-hand assessment of the damage.

President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam expressed “deep pain” over the loss of life and cancelled his Assam visit scheduled tomorrow in view of the tragedy.

By then, the crisis management group, chaired by cabinet secretary B.K. Chaturvedi, had already met and assessed the damage in the mainland on the basis of reports from state governments.

Over a three-hour meeting that started at 1 pm, the group of a dozen-odd department heads got its first comprehensive briefing from the meteorological departments and an update on the extent of the damage.

Tamil Nadu, where 600 people died in two districts alone, was clearly the worst hit. However, not much could be made out about the extent of damage in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Chaturvedi described the damage caused by the tsunamis as extensive but did not go into details.

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iLoop Mobile Runs Interactive SMS Contest, Quiz and Mobile Trivia Programs Live During Silicon Valley Football Classic

30/11/19

iLoop Mobile today announced that the Silicon Valley Football Classic (SVFC) has selected iLoop Mobile as their mobile interactive partner for SVFC's 5th annual bowl, where Northern Illinois University Huskies and Troy University Trojans will face off at the San Jose Spartan Stadium Thursday, December 30 at 8:00 p.m. (PST). iLoop Mobile, along with sponsoring an SMS ticket give-away, will host an SMS "On-field Photographer Contest" and SMS sports trivia quizzes throughout the game.

Silicon Valley Football Classic organizers and sponsors can establish a one-to-one relationship with their audience with iLoop Mobile's interactive mobile solutions. Prior to the game, fans simply text Huskie or Trojan to 63459 to win free tickets courtesy of iLoop Mobile. During the game, fans will be invited to play the On-field Photographer SMS contest. Fans will also have the opportunity to play a series of trivia games via SMS for the chance to win instant and grand prizes.

"The addition of iLoop Mobile's interactive mobile platform to our pre-game promotions and live game events provides us with our first chance to directly interact with the fans before, after, and during the game," said Daniel Fenton, President and CEO of San Jose Convention & Visitors Bureau as well as President of Silicon Valley Football Classic. "Football fans are invited to participate in our mobile campaigns through inserts in our newspaper advertising, game program, PA announcements, and scoreboard messages. Prizes from HP and other sponsors will be awarded."

By leveraging the mobile channel, and providing an avenue for people to interact irrespective of time or place through the mobile phone, companies are able to build and nourish strong communal relationship with their fans, customers, and prospects. "iLoop Mobile is happy to support the local community, and help SVFC enrich the fans' overall experience during the game by fostering interaction between the fans, teams, and game sponsors," said Michael Becker, President of iLoop Mobile. "Adding a mobile dimension to existing promotion and media programs for community efforts like SVFC is an excellent way to engage fans and generate loyalty."

In the United States there is a clear trend towards increased consumer adoption of premium mobile services, such as text messaging (a.k.a SMS), picture messages, mobile games, and ringtone downloads and related mobile services. Brands, media, and marketers leverage the mobile channel to develop brand awareness, customer loyalty, and revenue. In 2004 alone, over 30 billion text messages will be exchanged across United States mobile networks, a 1000% increase over 2 years ago, and according to Forrester Research this number will double as early as 2007.

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SMS warnings not to use Penang Bridge

30/11/19

Works Minister S. Samy Vellu has stressed that the Penang Bridge is structurally sound, after a raft of SMS-based rumours warned about the closing of the 13.5km link between the island and the Malaysian mainland.

Datuk Seri Samy Vellu urged motorists not to listen to rumours spread via SMS by what he termed irresponsible people.

'I have said it before and I'm saying it again...the bridge is safe and structurally sound,' he said.

Earlier, he said experts had conducted a visual inspection using special equipment and declared the bridge safe.

Yesterday, The Star was flooded by queries from the public asking the newspaper to confirm rumours about another earthquake and how Penang Bridge could be closed.

The warning, which purportedly originated from the Astro - the country's only satellite channel - was denied by the company.

The original SMS message read: 'Do not go to seaside or cross PG bridge between 7pm to 8pm. Earthquake may happen again...fr ASTRO News Pls. inform others.'

Across Malaysia's tsunami-hit areas yesterday, rescuers combed beach resorts and towns for about 100 vacationers, fishermen and villagers who went missing after tidal waves on Sunday killed at least 50 people and injured more than 220 others.

According to statistics compiled by the Malaysian authorities, there were 50 deaths nationwide as of 6pm yesterday.

The worst damage in Malaysia was in the northern states of Penang and Kedah that face the Malacca Strait, which divides the country from Indonesia.

Thirty-seven people died in Penang, nine in Kedah, three in Perak and one in Selangor, while eight people were missing in Penang and one in Perak. A total of 275 people were injured.

Thousands of people were being evacuated from Penang's usually placid north-western seaside districts hit by flash floods. The authorities have expressed fears of more tsunamis.

'I pray that there will not be another round of tidal waves,' Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said in a televised statement.

On a strip of sand in Penang that locals called Miami Beach, officials have set up a makeshift command post to lead rescuers.

The Malaysian Armed Forces deployed two helicopters, 59 assault boats, a team of divers and more than 120 men to scour the water and distribute food, Bernama reported.

A 20-day-old baby survived the wave that swamped her father's food stall because the mattress she was sleeping on started floating.

'I thought I had lost both my daughters...but thank God the mattress was floating in about 1.5m of water and my baby was crying,' Mr A. Suppiah, 55, the infant's father, said.

'My other daughter, Kanchana, somehow managed to...run to safety.'

But not everyone in Penang remained despondent. Several tourists told AFP they had no intention of leaving the island early.

With jet skis and other sea toys lying mangled on the shore, they watched as search and rescue boats plying the waters off the upscale Batu Ferringhi beach brought ashore the bodies of a 70-year-old man and an eight-year-old boy.

'We are not going to leave just because of this,' said Mr Grant Brewster, a 43-year-old Briton on holiday with his wife Gennifer and their two children.

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Cell C festive SMS figures triple

30/11/19

South Africa's third cellular operator Cell C announced on Tuesday that its SMS (short message service or text message) traffic had almost tripled for Christmas Day 2004 and Christmas Eve 2004 from SMS traffic recorded during the comparable period in 2003.

As it continues to deliver on customer care and service to its more than two million subscriber base, Cell C said that it has prioritised ensuring that all services over the festive season operate smoothly.

The operator successfully delivered 4.4 million text messages on December 24 2004 from 1.6 million sent previously. On Christmas Day 2004 Cell C delivered 5.7 million SMSs from 2.3 million text messages delivered in 2003.

This year's peak period deliveries were between 20h00 and 24h00 on Christmas eve with 1.7 million SMSs from 675,000 last year on December 24 while on Christmas Day 2004 between 0h00 and 13h00 a total of 3.4 million SMSs were delivered compared with 1.2 million in 2003.

Citing feedback on network congestion and service levels, Cell C said its network was running smoothly and service levels were being maintained.

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Real Estate Yard Signs Go High-Tech With New Information Service for Mobile Phones

30/11/19

ClearSky Mobile Media, Inc., a eader in wireless marketing services, announced today the first live rollout of iCODE for real estate listings. People driving down the streets of Windermere, Florida can now learn more about the listings of Main Street Realtors by simply entering a short code number displayed on the yard sign into their mobile phones. The iCODE service then immediately responds with a
text message containing information on the home.

iCODE stands for "Information Code" and is simple to use, even for the
text messaging novice. The interested buyer goes to the text messaging
feature in his or her phone, enters the iCODE number "88999" as the "To:" address and then puts in the home's four-character code from the yard sign as the body of the message. In just a few seconds, the iCODE service responds with information about the house.

iCODE works today on AT&T/Cingular, T-Mobile, Sprint and Verizon phones with additional carriers soon to be added. "Flyers attached to yard signs have been nothing but problems for us, yet people want instant information about a house they are driving by," said Judy Black, owner/broker of Main Street Realtors. "iCODE is the answer."

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Thai Red Cross seeking Donations via SMS

30/11/19

The Thai Red Cross is urging people to make donations to help with its considerable relief efforts. Mobile phone users, with either pre paid or post paid SIM cards, from any network within Thailand can donate money via SMS. Simply type “RC” in the message body and send to 452-0000 (no area code is needed). The cost is 10 Baht per message, and all proceeds go to the Thai Red Cross Society to help the disaster victims. SMS donations can be made from today until 31 January, 2005.

In addition, the National Blood Service Center of the Thai Red Cross has launched an appeal for blood donors, needing those from the O, A and Rh negative groups. Approximately only one in 1000 Thais has Rh negative blood and the appeal for this group has been directed to visitors and foreign residents. On 27th December, the first day of the appeal, 3000 donors came to give blood. On the 28th 4000 came, including a number of visitors and foreign residents.

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Call or SMS donations to S'pore Red Cross hotlines for tsunami victims

30/11/19

There will be no new target set for the Singapore Red Cross after it crossed the $2 million mark on Wednesday.

$1 million has been raised from public donations alone, with another $1 million from corporate donors.

This does not include the Singapore Government's $500,000 contribution.

At the same time, the Red Cross is expanding the number of ways Singaporeans can help.

From Thursday, the public can call or send SMS to donation hotlines to make their contributions.

It is the biggest turn-out seen for any Red Cross appeal.

Vehicles lined its premises at Penang Lane as Singaporeans, young and old, literally came in droves to do their part to help the tsunami victims.

And some wanted to do more.

Josephine Chong, a donor, said: "To help out instead of giving money. I want to give support...I do not have the medical skills but I can run around, bring them water whatever they need, I would be able to help."

An emotional Madam Tan Geok Huay wanted to bring a Red Cross donation box to her workplace, especially after her son's close encounter.

"I am very happy my son called me back from Krabi...last night he called and said he would be back tomorrow. I called MFA. They told me to wait because he went for rockclimbing, so now I feel this is a great present and I want to give back," she said.

And now there are easier ways to donate.

For DBS Bank and OCBC Bank customers, they can simply use the ATM or go online.

Donation hotlines open on Thursday, where you can call 1900-112 1226 or SMS *1226 to make a $10 donation or call 1900-112 1227 or SMS *1227 to make a $50 donation.

The Singapore Red Cross is literally banking on new ways to donate so that there won't be long queues.

Jeffrey Chan, Vice Chairman of Singapore Red Cross, said: "Partly because of the overwhelming response, and partly because as you can see - members of the public would want to see convenience.

"It is more convenient to donate thorough the website, the ATM, your handphone and telephone rather than having to write down a cheque or come down to Red Cross House to make a donation."

Companies are also doing their bit. SingTel opened the donation hotlines and even a moblog site for organisations and individuals to coordinate disaster relief efforts.

Alcan Packaging launched a company wide appeal from employees - with a dollar-for-dollar match by the company.

At Breadtalk, special relief buns are being sold at $2.30 each - with 90 cents going to the Red Cross appeal fund. It aims to raise $90,000.

There were also heartwarming gestures too. Six boxes of chicken pies were specially delivered by M Hotels for the Red Cross volunteers

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TV channels which air sleazy SMS may be sued

30/11/19

The Dubai Police Chief yesterday took his campaign against the so-called 'video clip' satellite TV channels airing undesirable SMSs to Dubai Media City where he spoke to officials there on means to curb the phenomenon. Lieutenant General Dhahi Khalfan Tamim, Commander in Chief of Dubai Police, recently called on satellite channels broadcasting in or to the Arab world to abide by a code of ethics that monitors and bans bad SMS on their screens. He said it would not be unlikely to file court cases against such channels for violating social norms and religious values.

The police official visited MusicPlus TV channel located in DMC. According to Hadia Bu Hadi, media in-charge at the channel, MusicPlus pledged to continue its strict policy of monitoring SMSs and ensure that no bad messages were aired on its screen. She said efforts were being made to ensure that the station continues to pride itself with the fact that it airs its contents from the UAE.

The visit by Lt Gen Dhahi was part of the campaign to curb the bad phenomenon of SMSs on the so-called youth channels and make them more respectful.

"All bad SMSs should be banned. Actually, airing such SMSs make channels lose many of their viewers who reject these practices people who turn away from stations that do not abide by ethical rules", Lt Gen Dhahi said while discussing the phenomenon with MusicPlus Executive Director Abdul Razak Al Abdallah and a number of the station's staff.

"I believe that things can be put to rights. We will talk to the stations and try to end the phenomenon amicably to improve their media role as a lawyer's fee who would file a case against an (erring) station could run into more than Dh500,000. As our interest is the same as that of the community, we believe that these (youth) stations should be part of the media that has cultural dimensions and not only stations broadcasting songs", said Lt Gen Dhahi.

Many satellite television stations recently started using SMS services, but the facility enabling viewers to send instant messages had been misused, and in the case of some stations, extensively.

"Many (so-called) singers are producing cheap video clips, and this is in itself a problem, as respectful songs are there. And besides that problem, a lot of indecent stuff is shown on TV screens", the police chief.

Lt Col Dhahi said in a recent interview that television stations should abide by an ethical code and apply a monitoring method before SMS texts get to the screen. "These SMSs are a nuisance and badly affect society and its traditions", he explained.

He said most of these SMSs carry undesirable contents. "They enter our homes and our sons and daughters read them. This is really dangerous on our youngsters", Lt Gen Dhahi said.

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Sky Tg 24, Italian Television, to Help via SMS and via Email Italian People in South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami

30/11/19

All the Italian people willing to inform their family or testify what"s happening in South-East Asia can send a short message. Messages will be aired during each News edition.

With this service Sky Tg 24 is helping all the italian families to keep in touch and to get updated information directly from Tsunami zones. This services it's also an important step to integrate news from different source (email, sms, tv) and i t's an important step further for the Italian television.

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Teens depend on messaging as adults debate toll on language

30/11/19

Judy Biu is no newbie when it comes to the tightly condensed, every-letter-is-at-a-premium world of online communication.

She knows when friends type 'TTYL' in an instant message, it means "talk to you later." She understands that unlike her English class, punctuation and capitalization are strictly optional.

But the 18-year-old Central Dauphin High School senior admits even she is sometimes stumped by the misspellings, abbreviations and bizarre acronyms that infiltrate her friends' messages.

"It's good to be up on this stuff, but on the other hand, if you change words so dramatically, the people you send it to don't even know what you're saying," said Biu, who cleaned up her own online writing after noticing all those acronyms and typos were changing how she wrote.

In this age of constant communication, it makes sense for those who talk via computer keyboards and cell-phone keypads to have their own shorthand language. And for the most part, nearly everyone who communicates through instant messages or by text messaging knows that '2' can mean 'to,' 'two' or 'too' and 'cul8r' is short for 'see you later.'

But some educators worry about the impact that these phonetic spellings and missed punctuation are having on writing, especially in the classroom. Others said all this text messaging and IMing might actually have a positive effect on writing, even if this nouveau form of communication is indecipherable to some parents and teachers.

Whatever they're saying, they're saying it a lot. Nearly three-quarters of teens use instant message, compared with 44 percent of adults, according to a 2001 survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. And almost half of all teens have their own cell phones, according to industry studies.

For many acronynm-savvy teens, six-word sentences such as WRUDON (what are you doing?) are xlnt (excellent) and really nbd (no big deal), although sometimes ppl (people) should pxt (please explain that).

Trinity High School senior Matt Johnson said most teens know there's a difference between the writing they do in school and when they're messaging friends. Johnson, who got his first cell phone in eighth grade, estimates he sends 10 to 20 text messages a day, almost all heavy with abbreviations.

Sometimes they even creep into his f-2-f (face-to-face) conversations. "A friend will say, 'What's up?' and I'll say, 'ntm,' which is short for 'not too much,'" Johnson said.

IMing and text messaging are replacing the telephone, formerly the staple of teenage communication, said Niki Kalemnous, 17, a senior at Mechanicsburg High School.

"I think teens now are so busy we don't even talk on the phone really. Text messaging -- it's easier," said Kalemnous, who estimates she messages five to 10 times a day. "It's almost like a lifestyle now."

Central Dauphin High School teacher Rick Averill said that while good students might know the difference between an IM to a friend and an essay for class, a struggling writer might not. E-mails are better because they usually require more organization, clarity and thought than instant messages, which are pointless if you want an engaging conversation, he said.

"It's like being on the phone for hours," Averill said. "Nothing gets said."

Stanford University linguist Geoffrey Nunberg disagreed with assessments that IMs and text messages will be the death of formal writing. If anything, they might encourage more people to express themselves more than before, he said. And grammar and usage mistakes can always be corrected, he added.

Nunberg said that because more people are sharing their thoughts through the Internet by Web logging and IMing, some people might think writing is getting worse when really there's just more of it to see than before.

"People have always said English is going to hell in a handcart since the days of Jonathan Swift," said Nunberg, who chairs the usage panel of the American Heritage Dictionary. "You learn to write by writing. The more you write, the better you write."

Mechanicsburg High School student Abbey Barron is a frequent IMer and text messenger, but even she can see the difference it has made in her communication.

"I think it's gotten less personal," said Barron, 17. "Half the time you get online, you say the same things to your friends. It gets really repetitive."

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Pledge your donations via ATMs, SMS

30/11/19

THE Short Message System (SMS) has been used to pledge donations in local charity shows and to cast votes for Singapore Idol.

So, why not leverage on Singapore's mobile telecommunication network to raise funds for the quake and tsunami victims?

Today approached the three telcos yesterday on the feasibility of setting up SMS-donation hotlines as an additional channel for the disaster fund, and found that SingTel was already "working on the details" of an SMS-based fundraising mechanism for the Singapore Red Cross' efforts in the affected regions.

M1 was galvanised into action and StarHub is now also working on such a possibility.

While SingTel will only be announcing the details of its fundraising plans — which will involve their "staff, customers and other stakeholders" — within the next few days, it has already pledged $200,000 to help the tidal wave victims.

Mr Chua Swee Kiat, general manager for M1 corporate communications, said: "In view of Today's offer of a publicity platform, crucial for any appeal to succeed, M1 will be starting a donation drive via SMS."

The targeted date for the launch of M1's SMS-donation hotline on behalf of the Singapore Red Cross is this Saturday, Jan 1 2005.

M1's 700,000 post-paid customers can then donate via SMS in $10 denominations, with the normal administrative fee for such SMS services waived for the donation drive period. All funds raised will be donated to the Singapore Red Cross.

At the same time, StarHub is looking into how it can help by opening up an SMS-donation portal for its 1 million subscribers.

DBS and POSB are also using its wide customer base and ATM network to help raise funds. The bank's customers can now contribute to the "Red Cross Tidal Waves Asia" fund at any of the 780 DBS or POSB ATMs islandwide, or online via the DBS Internet banking portal.

Said Mr Rajan Raju, managing director and head of South and South-east Asia, DBS Bank: "More than 550,000 Singaporeans use DBS iBanking. Given our wide customer base and ATM network, we want to help the Singapore Red Cross raise money by making it convenient for people to donate."

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Paktel donates SMS income to Tsunami victims

30/11/19

Paktel, Pakistan's pioneering mobile operator has come forward to help the victims from one of the worst natural calamities of human history - the Tsunami tragedy that has claimed more than 80,000 lives in South Asia and Africa, the sources said here. According to officials, Paktel would donate the entire income from its SMS services for the period December 31st, 2004 to January 1, 2005 in the cause.

Paktel's sister company in Sri Lanka is already helping in the relief efforts. Here in Pakistan, the Paktel has requested all its subscribers to send as many SMS messages as they could in those two days so that a sizeable amount could be collected for the victims, the sources added.

"What has happened in South Asia is beyond description," Paktel CEO Xavier Rocoplan said. The tragedy was not just for the affected countries but for all mankind. Paktel had created an opportunity for its customers to help in a simple way.

Every Paktel customer would be able to contribution by sending SMS messages as Paktel would donate all of the SMS revenue collected during the period 31st December 2004 to 1st January 2005 towards the relief efforts in one of the most adversely hit countries i e Sri Lanka.

"I urge all our subscribers to please help us in this effort and send as many SMS messages as possible, so that together all of us can make a difference, because after all "Dil to aik hai", he added.

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Singapore Red Cross raises S$5m so far for tsunami victims

30/11/19

The Red Cross relief appeal fund for tsunami victims has hit S$5 million.

While fewer people turned up at the organisation's headquarters, Singaporeans are turning to other means of donation - through telephone and SMS, as well as ATMs and online banking.

It was a relatively quiet scene at Red Cross House on Thursday, compared to the long queues just the day before.

But there was still a steady stream of people coming in to make cash and cheque donations, including MediaCorp artistes Priscelia Chan and Apple Hong.

Star-gazing was not restricted to just donors - but volunteers too - the likes of Nominated MP Eunice Olsen.

But the Red Cross says the slowdown is not due to donor fatigue.

Winston Choo, Chairman, Singapore Red Cross, said, "I don't believe it's because Singaporeans don't want to help but there are other access points for Singaporeans to put in their donations...MediaCorp's announcements and other press announcements have helped things along because it relieves staff and volunteers for other work."

So people are now donating more effectively, with nearly S$800,000 donated by DBSBank customers via Internet banking and ATMs in just a day.

SingTel customers have also been calling or messaging dedicated hotline numbers to make donations.

Come January, both M1 and StarHub will kick off their SMS donations, with StarHub sending donation messages that customers just simply need to reply to.

For now, the Red Cross is sending relief supplies to the Maldives, while exploring the possibility of sending relief teams to Sumatra and Sri Lanka.

Winston Choo said, "For us to rush in to do things could be counterproductive because the receiving countries don't have the capacity at this stage to accept volunteers and goods in kind -
you can send it up but you need someone to receive it.

"I have witnessed many instances where goods rot in ports because the receiving end was not ready - likewise - sending volunteers there...the host country must be in a position to accommodate and deploy the various teams and provide them the liaison and this is not yet available."

So, to play it safe, the Red Cross is sending a one-man team to recce Sri Lanka first.

Its services manager Dr Leong will go there to see what is needed before returning with a report card on whether Singapore will send a relief team there.

At the same time, it is planning to work closely with the Singapore Armed Forces in Aceh.

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Telstra boosts capacity for NYE

30/11/19

Telstra has boosted its mobile network capacity in anticipation of a record number of calls and text messages being made on New Year's Eve and Day.

The company is increasing mobile capacity in almost 100 locations around Australia.

They include Sydney Harbour and Milsons Point in Sydney, Southbank and Bourke St Mall in Melbourne, City Beach and Fremantle in Western Australia, Surfers Paradise and the Sunshine Coast in Queensland and Rundle St in Adelaide.

Telstra expects more than 22 million SMS messages to be sent and more than 23 million mobile calls to be made across its network as customers celebrate the arrival of 2005.

Last new year, customers sent 19.6 million SMS messages and made 19.3 voice calls.

"Our engineers have been rolling up their sleeves to install portable base stations and increase mobile phone capacity at various celebration locations and holiday destinations across the country in anticipation of record network traffic," Telstra infrastructure services group managing director Michael Rocca said.

But Mr Rocca added some customers might experience delays in getting calls or messages through on New Year's Eve.

"Telstra encourages customers who may experience a short delay in making calls or sending SMS messages to wait a couple of minutes before trying again," Mr Rocca said.

"Network congestion is inevitable on any network at any time but congestion levels on Telstra's network even on the busiest night of the year, will be well within international standards due to the additional capacity."

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Text messaging moving to novels on cell phones

30/11/19

One day before too long, when your mobile telephone sounds, it could be a novel calling to recount how the headstrong heroine dumped the handsome heartbreaker. Or it might be a guidebook surfacing at a critical moment in a crowded bar to provide you with pickup lines in Spanish, French or German.

The increasing power of cell phones is fast shaping innovative forms of compact culture: micro-lit, phone soap operas and made-for-mobile dramas that can be absorbed in less time than it takes to flick through a book introduction.

Today very few people are using so-called third-generation mobile services, or smart phones, which allow users to browse the Internet and watch videos. But most cell phones sold these days have color screens and the ability to receive picture messages. So media companies are reinventing quaint old formulas with the aim of reaching youthful customers.

"Are people going to read War and Peace on their telephones?" asked David Harper, whose company, Wireless Ink, in Cold Spring, N.Y., offers Web users cell-phone-size literature on such weighty themes as the zombie apocalypse. "The answer is probably no. Right now the content on mobile devices is almost like early television. What they did then was to sit down and do a radio broadcast for the television screen. But there was a picture. Our mission now is to get feedback."

One pioneer is Media Republic, an Amsterdam company that is successfully reaching young women with the mobile equivalent of the French "roman photo," a sentimental genre of romantic still photos and text that dates to the postwar period.

Dutch users register their mobile phones to follow the adventures of the hormone-driven characters of Jong Zuid, or Young South, which is now in production for its fourth season. Customers receive two episodes daily, each with six photographs of well-known Dutch actors and text describing the travails of glamorous young people pursuing their fortune in the big city.

A weekly subscription costs about $1.50, but most of the revenue comes from an assortment of corporate sponsors that pay for product placements, Web advertising and the exclusive rights to sponsor Jong Zuid contests and promotions.

Media Republic and a partner are to produce a similar English-language version, which will start appearing in Australia this month, using local actors and scenes. Called My Way, it is calculated to appeal to young women, as did the Dutch phone soap, which attracted 78,000 subscribers, 68 percent of them women, with an average age of about 18.

Media Republic is planning to bring out other versions of the soap opera early next year in Germany and in France, where its partner, NX Publishing, is in the final stages of negotiation with major French television channels, magazines and mobile-telephone operators.

"Everybody is eventually moving to video on mobile, and this 'roman photo' concept is a bridge for those people who are not able to use videos yet because they need a sophisticated telephone," said Jean-Michel Blottiere, NX's chief executive. "This is a step that could lead us very sweetly to video."

The market researcher IDC of Framingham, Mass., predicts that about 4.5 million smart phones will be shipped to stores this year and estimates that the number will grow to 35 million by 2008.

Almost two-thirds of the 62 million cell phones shipped in Europe in the last quarter were camera phones with color screens, according to Canalys, a technology consulting and research firm based in London. Only 3 percent of phones sold in Europe last year were smart phones; Canalys expects that number to pick up substantially.

Still, that hasn't stopped a number of companies from trying to exploit the potential market. During the Asian Film Festival this month in Singapore, MediaCorp, a local company, announced that it was spending a half-million dollars to produce 45 two-minute episodes of a Chinese-language mobile video drama.

The giant British mobile-phone company Vodafone has struck a partnership with 20th Century Fox to create a made-for-cell phone video series, based on the television show 24, which will start appearing next month in the first of 13 countries. A British phone manufacturer, I-Mate, has also produced Cjaq, a 10-part thriller with video about five young people trapped in a futuristic nightclub to which they were drawn by a hoax text-message invitation.

In the book industry in the United States, the initial reaction to mobile-lit is: "Are you kidding?" as one veteran put it.

Still, some major New York publishing houses are pondering the future. "We are paying attention, but we haven't entered the market yet," said Kate Tentler, the vice president and publisher for Simon & Schuster Online. "It would be crazy not to look at this. Smart phones are everywhere and it's the fastest-growing device."

In Europe, even some old-guard publishers have jumped into the mobile format. The Langenscheidt Publishing Group, based in Munich, is a traditional, family-run company that would seem an unlikely player in this market. It has been publishing dictionaries, travel guides and map books since 1856 and is run by the fourth generation of the Langenscheidt family.

This month Langenscheidt started offering a phone-size flirting dictionary that is its way of promoting international understanding. For about $5, the service offers 600 or so phrases in the chosen language, and practical advice including phonetic pronunciations of polite brushoffs.

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FIRs could be registered through SMS in UP:

30/11/19

People in Uttar Pradesh who want to register FIRs with police could soon do so through the SMS facility on their mobile phones.

"The pilot project of getting FIRs lodged through SMS in Noida has proved successful and now this facility will be extended to all big towns of the state including Lucknow," Principal Secretary, Home, Alok Sinha said here today.

The mobile numbers for the purpose will be made public through advertisements and other modes, he said.

This facility will help in prompt registering of the FIRs besides checking complaint of cases not being registered by police, he added.

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France Telecom Mobilizes

30/11/19

As part of an initial series of actions following the events that occurred in Southern Asia (see December 30th 2004 press release), the France Telecom Group has offered to local public authorities in those countries where it operates as a mobile operator to contribute to identify Orange customers who may have been in the areas hit by the tsunami.

On December 30th, the French government requested that mobile operators send an SMS to their customers who were in the area on December 25 and 26th. Countries involved are India, Indonesia, Maldive Islands, Malaysia, Thailand and Sri Lanka.

3,200 Orange France customers thus received the following SMS, established by public authorities: "Orange Info - At government request, if on December 26th you were in the area of the tsunami, please call the Foreign Ministry: from France, 0 800 174 174, from abroad, +33 1 45 50 34 60".

It is possible to identify Orange France customers who were travelling in the area through their numbers registered in the localisation database of customers abroad (roaming), if the customers turned their cell phones on in an area covered by an operator with whom Orange France has a roaming agreement.

The France Telecom Group has taken an initial series of measures to provide assistance and support following the disaster in South and Southeast Asia:

Measures to facilitate communications for customers in the disaster zone;
Measures to help reestablish local communications links with the provision of technical and human resources;
Measures to facilitate and promote donations to aid organizations.

Measures to facilitate communications for customers in the disaster zone

For Orange mobile subscribers, France Telecom will not charge for calls made by its customers from the areas hit by the disaster for a 10-day period starting December 26.

Measures to help reestablish local communications links with the provision of technical and human resources:

France Telecom immediately made material resources (notably satellite links) and technicians available to the NGO Télécoms Sans Frontières (TSF).
The Group has notified local authorities in countries where it operates wireless services, particularly France and the United Kingdom, that it is available to help in efforts to locate citizens who are Orange customers and who were in areas hit by the disaster.

Measures to facilitate and promote donations to humanitarian organizations:

In several countries it will be possible to make donations simply by sending an SMS message. The amounts billed will be entirely transferred to partner NGOs. In France, Orange will launch the "SMS for Asia" operation on 00h00 on Sunday, January 2 for an initial period of one month. Three special numbers will allow Orange customers to quickly and easily make a donation to the Croix-Rouge (Red Cross), Secours Populaire or Secours Catholique aid organizations.

To make donations, customers simply send an SMS to 80 222 for the Croix-Rouge, 80 333 for the Secours Populaire or 80 444 for the Secours Catholique. Customers receive the Croix-Rouge, Secours Populaire or Secours Catholique logo on their mobile phone, along with a message confirming that the donation has been recorded.

A surcharge of one euro is added to the cost of each SMS. All funds collected are transferred to the organization selected.

In addition, during the first week of the operation, for each SMS donation by Orange customers, France Telecom will itself make an additional one euro contribution.

The Group is helping raise funds via Internet as well. Since December 28 the www.wanadoo.fr portal has enabled people to make an online donation to the Croix-Rouge.

The "SMS for Asia" operation will also be promoted on the wanadoo.fr website. Other France Telecom group websites-www.francetelecom.com and www.voila.fr-are promoting donations as well.

The home pages of France Telecom Group portals in France (www.francetelecom.com, www.wanadoo.fr, www.voila.fr and www.orange.fr), will provide their 3.6 million daily visitors with regularly updated information.

International mobilization by France Telecom Group

A host of similar initiatives are being organized in countries where France Telecom operates around the world, including the United Kingdom, Mauritius and Switzerland. Other countries will shortly join these solidarity efforts.

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New Year's Eve mobile record tipped

30/11/19

Australia'S mobile phone operators are gearing up for the busiest day of the telecommunications year, with all the major carriers putting on extra capacity for anticipated record call and SMS volumes over New Year's Eve.

Telstra is expecting more than 22 million SMS messages will be sent today and tomorrow, and forecasts its customers will make 23 million mobile calls as they celebrate the arrival of the new year.

Last year Telstra customers sent 19.6 million SMS messages and made 19.3 million voice calls over the New Year period.

Optus is forecasting 40 million mobile phone calls in the 24 hours to 3pm tomorrow, along with 18 million SMS messages. Over the same period last year the Optus network carried 38.8 million mobile calls and 13.4 million SMS messages.

Both major carriers are planning extra capacity, brining in mobile base stations for the big event. Telstra will increase capacity at almost 100 locations around Australia, ranging from Sydney Harbour and Milson's Point on Sydney's north shore to Melbourne's Bourke Street Mall.

Similarly, Optus has hauled in what it calls Cells-On-Wheels to deliver additional capacity, backed up by a team of network planners and engineers to managed demand in hot spots.

But both carriers are warning revellers that some congestion is inevitable due to overwhelming demand. Telstra infrastructure services group managing director Michael Rocca said called on mobile users to be patient.

"Our engineers have been rolling up their sleeves to install portable base stations and increase mobile phone capacity at various celebration locations and holiday destinations across the country in anticipation of record network traffic," he said. "Network congestion if inevitable on any network at any time, but congestion levels on Telstra's network even on the busiest night of the year will be well within international standards due to the additional capacity."

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Mobile phone text messagers raising millions for tsunami victims

30/11/19

Italian mobile phone users were reported on Thursday to have donated more than 11 million euros (15 million dollars) for the victims of the Asian tsunamis through a text messaging arrangement that seemed to be setting a trend in other countries.

The Milan daily Corriere della Sera said Italians could contribute one euro to tsunami disaster relief every time they send a text message to a special number, thanks to a scheme sponsored by the country's four mobile phone companies and its main television channels.

Organisers of Germany's biggest New Year's Eve party, to be held Friday at the landmark Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, said party-goers could make donations to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) by sending a text message to a special number.

Every message featuring the word UNICEF sent to the number will raise 2.65 euros for emergency relief. Up to a million people are expected to attend the event.

In Spain, Telefonica moviles, mobile offshoot of Telefonica, announced it was inviting customers to send messages for 0.90 euros (1.20 dollars) to three non-governmental humanitarian organisations with the company donating the entire proceeds raised from the operation to the victims' fund.

A spokesman said Telefonica moviles had set the system in train on Wednesday and added it would stay in place until the end of January.

Portugal's biggest mobile phone company, TMN, said it had opened a special line for its five million subscribers to contribute one euro per text message throughout January and donate the money to the Red Cross or other charities serving the Asian victims.

By the end of Thursday, its first full day in operation, the line had received some 20,000 text messages, the company said in a statement.

State-run France Telecom said it would launch a similar service on Monday for the benefit of the Red Cross and French charities and keep it going until the end of January.

Singapore's three telecom firms said they would launch SMS-based services on Saturday, New Year's Day, for mobile subscribers to contribute up to 50 Singapore dollars (30 US dollars) by sending a text message to a specified number.

The largest company, SingTel, said in a statement that it would also open a hotline for donations.

In Helsinki, the world's largest mobile phone maker, Nokia, said it had contributed to emergency relief in the tsunami-stricken areas, but would not confirm a report by the Red Cross that it had given 300,000 euros from its operations in Finland.

Italian newspapers also rushed to help. Corriere della Sera said it had already received 1.3 million euros in donations to a special bank account set up with TG5, the television news programme which is part of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's private media group Mediaset.

Corriere della Sera and the sporting daily Gazzetta dello Sport said they would contribute 0.10 euros from each newspaper sold on Friday to the relief funds.

Berlusconi, for his part, told a news conference that the huge killer waves which struck coastal communities and tourist resorts around the Indian Ocean on Sunday, killing at least 118,000 people, had caused "the greatest catastrophe of modern times."

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Ericsson using SMS Technology to aid Donations

30/11/19

The Swedish telecommunications equipment supplier, Ericsson, is aiding the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies with technology that allows anyone with a mobile telephone to make donations to the Red Cross' Tsunami disaster relief efforts in Asia.

Ericsson is using technology called Internet Payment Exchange which allows it to connect to local mobile phone networks, which in turn allows users to make donations, without having to do much more than quite literally lift a finger.

At present the service is being rolled out to countries around the world but is currently only active in Sweden and Thailand. To make donations, simply send an SMS to the number listed below next to the country where you are, type "RC" (if you are in Thailand) or Asien (if you are in Sweden) into the message, and send. Once you have successfully sent the donation SMS, you will receive a thank you SMS confirming your generosity. All proceeds from the donations go to the local Red Cross Society in that country.

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