Aliant (NBTel, MTT, NewTel, and Island Tel) (from: 11, msg: 140, total: 140)Enter your phone number. Message is sent to number@chat.wirefree.ca
Alltel (from: 50, msg: 116, total: 116)Enter your phone number. Goes to number@message.alltel.com.
Ameritech (ACSWireless) (from: 120, msg: 120, total: 120)Enter your phone number. Goes to number@paging.acswireless.com
Arch Wireless (from: 15, msg: 240, total: 240)Enter your phone number. Sent via http://www.arch.com/message/ (assumes blank PIN)
AT&T (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)Enter your phone number. Goes to number@txt.att.net
AU by KDDI (from: 20, msg: 10000, total: 10000)Enter your phone number. Goes to username@ezweb.ne.jp
BeeLine GSM (from: 50, msg: 255, total: 255)Enter your phone number. Goes to number@sms.beemail.ru
Bell Mobility Canada (from: 20, msg: 120, total: 120)Enter your phone number, including the 1 prefix. Goes to number@txt.bellmobility.ca
Bellsouth (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)Enter your phone number. Goes to number@bellsouth.cl
BellSouth Mobility (from: 15, msg: 160, total: 160)Enter your phone number. Goes to number@blsdcs.net
Blue Sky Frog (from: 30, msg: 120, total: 120)Enter your phone number. Goes to number@blueskyfrog.com
Boost (from: 30, msg: 120, total: 120)Enter your phone number. Goes to number@myboostmobile.com
Cellular South (from: 50, msg: 155, total: 155)Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to number@csouth1.com
CellularOne (Dobson) (from: 20, msg: 120, total: 120)Enter your phone number. Goes to number@mobile.celloneusa.com
CellularOne West (from: 20, msg: 120, total: 120)Enter your phone number. Goes to number@mycellone.com
Centennial Wireless (from: 10, msg: 110, total: 110)Enter your phone number. Sent via http://www.centennialwireless.com
Cincinnati Bell (from: 20, msg: 50, total: 50)Enter your phone number. Goes to number@gocbw.com
Claro (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)Enter your phone number. Goes to number@clarotorpedo.com.br
Comviq (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)Enter your phone number. Goes to number@sms.comviq.se
Dutchtone/Orange-NL (from: 15, msg: 150, total: 150)Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to number@sms.orange.nl
Edge Wireless (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to number@sms.edgewireless.com
EinsteinPCS / Airadigm Communications (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to number@einsteinsms.com
EPlus (from: 20, msg: 480, total: 480)Enter your phone number. Goes to number@smsmail.eplus.de.
Estonia Mobile Telefon (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)Enter your phone number. Sent via webform.
Fido Canada (from: 15, msg: 140, total: 140)Enter your phone number. Goes to number@fido.ca.
Golden Telecom (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)Enter your phone number or nickname. Messages are sent to number@sms.goldentele.com
Idea Cellular (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to number@ideacellular.net
Kyivstar (from: 30, msg: 160, total: 160)Sent by addressing the message to number@sms.kyivstar.net
LMT (from: 30, msg: 120, total: 120)Enter your username. Goes to username@sms.lmt.lv
Manitoba Telecom Systems (from: 20, msg: 120, total: 120)10-digit phone number. Goes to @text.mtsmobility.com
Meteor (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)Enter your phone number. Goes to number@sms.mymeteor.ie
Metro PCS (from: 20, msg: 120, total: 120)10-digit phone number. Goes to number@mymetropcs.com
Metrocall Pager (from: 120, msg: 120, total: 120)10-digit phone number. Goes to number@page.metrocall.com
MobileOne (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)Enter your phone number. Goes to number@m1.com.sg
Mobilfone (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)Enter your phone number. Goes to number@page.mobilfone.com
Mobility Bermuda (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)Enter your phone number. Goes to number@ml.bm
MTS Primtel (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)Enter your phone number. Sent via web gateway.
Aliant (NBTel, MTT, NewTel, and Island Tel) (from: 11, msg: 140, total: 140)Enter your phone number. Message is sent to number@chat.wirefree.ca
Netcom (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)Enter your phone number. Goes to number@sms.netcom.no
Nextel (from: 50, msg: 126, total: 126)10-digit phone number. Goes to 10digits@messaging.nextel.com. Note: do not use dashes in your phone number.
NPI Wireless (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)Enter your phone number. Goes to number@npiwireless.com.
NTC (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)Enter your phone number. Sent via web gateway.
O2 (formerly BTCellnet) (from: 20, msg: 120, total: 120)Enter O2 username - must be enabled first at http://www.o2.co.uk. Goes to username@o2.co.uk.
O2 M-mail (formerly BTCellnet) (from: 20, msg: 120, total: 120)Enter phone number, omitting initial zero - must be enabled first by sending an SMS saying "ON" to phone number "212". Goes to +44[number]@mmail.co.uk.
Optus (from: 20, msg: 114, total: 114)Enter your phone number. Goes to @optusmobile.com.au
Orange (UK) (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)Enter your phone number. Goes to @orange.net. You will need to create a user account at orange.net first.
Oskar (from: 20, msg: 320, total: 320)Enter your phone number. Goes to @mujoskar.cz
Other (from: 15, msg: 100, total: 100)If your provider isn't supported directly, enter the email address that sends you a text message in phone number field. To be safe, the entire message is sent in the body of the message, and the length limit is really short. We'd prefer you give us information about your provider so we can support it directly.
Pagenet (from: 20, msg: 220, total: 240)10-digit phone number (or gateway and pager number separated by a period). Goes to number@pagenet.net.
PCS Rogers (from: 20, msg: 125, total: 125)10-digit phone number. Goes to number@pcs.rogers.com. Requires prior registration with PCS Rogers.
Personal Communication (Sonet) (from: 20, msg: 150, total: 150)Enter your phone number. Goes to sms@pcom.ru with your number in the subject line.
Plus GSM Poland (from: 20, msg: 620, total: 620)10-digit phone number. Goes to number@text.plusgsm.pl.
Powertel (from: 20, msg: 120, total: 120)10-digit phone number. Goes to number@ptel.net
Primtel (from: 20, msg: 150, total: 150)Enter your phone number. Goes to number@sms.primtel.ru
PSC Wireless (from: 20, msg: 150, total: 150)Enter your phone number. Goes to number@sms.pscel.com
Qualcomm (from: 20, msg: 120, total: 120)Enter your username. Goes to username@pager.qualcomm.com
Qwest (from: 14, msg: 100, total: 100)10-digit phone number. Goes to @qwestmp.com
Red Oxygen ( from:20, msg:760, total760) mobilenumber@redoxygen.com
Safaricom (from: 15, msg: 160, total: 160)Goes to @safaricomsms.com
Satelindo GSM (from: 15, msg: 160, total: 160)Goes to @satelindogsm.com
SCS-900 (from: 15, msg: 160, total: 160)Goes to @scs-900.ru
Simple Freedom (from: 15, msg: 160, total: 160)Goes to @text.simplefreedom.net
Skytel - Alphanumeric (from: 15, msg: 240, total: 240)Enter your 7-digit pin number as your number and your message will be mailed to pin@skytel.com
Smart Telecom (from: 15, msg: 160, total: 160)Enter your phone number. Goes to @mysmart.mymobile.ph
Smarts GSM (from: 11, msg: 70, total: 70)Enter your phone number. Sent via http://www.samara-gsm.ru/scripts/smsgate.exe
Southern Linc (from: 15, msg: 160, total: 160)Enter your 10-digit phone number. Goes to @page.southernlinc.com
Sprint PCS (from: 15, msg: 160, total: 160)Enter your 10-digit phone number. Goes to @messaging.sprintpcs.com
Sprint PCS - Short Mail (from: 15, msg: 1000, total: 1000)Enter your phone number. Goes to @sprintpcs.com
SunCom (from: 18, msg: 110, total: 110)Enter your number. Email will be sent to number@tms.suncom.com.
SureWest Communications (from: 20, msg: 200, total: 200)Enter your phone number. Message will be sent to number@mobile.surewest.com
SwissCom Mobile (from: 20, msg: 10000, total: 10000)Enter your phone number. Message will be sent to number@bluewin.ch
T-Mobile Germany (from: 15, msg: 160, total: 160)Enter your number. Email will be sent to number@T-D1-SMS.de
T-Mobile Netherlands (from: 15, msg: 160, total: 160)Send "EMAIL ON" to 555 from your phone, then enter your number starting with 316. Email will be sent to number@gin.nl
T-Mobile UK (from: 30, msg: 160, total: 160)Messages are sent to number@t-mobile.uk.net
T-Mobile USA (from: 30, msg: 160, total: 160)Messages are sent to number@tmomail.net
T-Mobile USA (Sidekick) (from: 30, msg: 10000, total: 10000)Messages are sent to username@tmail.com
Tele2 Latvia (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)10-digit phone number. Goes to number@sms.tele2.lv.
Telefonica Movistar (from: 20, msg: 120, total: 120)10-digit phone number. Goes to number@movistar.net
Telenor (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)10-digit phone number. Goes to number@mobilpost.no.
Telia Denmark (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)8-digit phone number. Goes to number@gsm1800.telia.dk.
Telus Mobility (from: 30, msg: 120, total: 120)10-digit phone number. Goes to 10digits@msg.telus.com.
The Phone House (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)10-digit phone number. Goes to number@sms.phonehouse.de.
TIM (from: 30, msg: 350, total: 350)10-digit phone number. Goes to number@timnet.com.
UMC (from: 10, msg: 120, total: 120)Sent by addressing the message to number@sms.umc.com.ua
Unicel (from: 10, msg: 120, total: 120)Sent by addressing the message to number@utext.com
US Cellular (from: , msg: 150, total: 150)Enter a 10 digit USCC Phone Number. Messages are sent to number@email.uscc.net
Verizon Wireless (from: 34, msg: 140, total: 140)Enter your 10-digit phone number. Messages are sent via email to number@vtext.com.
Verizon Wireless (formerly Airtouch) (from: 20, msg: 120, total: 120)Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to number@airtouchpaging.com. This is ONLY for former AirTouch customers. Verizon Wireless customers should use Verizon Wireless instead.
Verizon Wireless (myairmail.com) (from: 34, msg: 140, total: 140)Enter your phone number. Messages are sent via to number@myairmail.com.
Vessotel (from: 20, msg: 800, total: 800)Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to roumer@pager.irkutsk.ru.
Virgin Mobile Canada (from: 20, msg: 140, total: 140)Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to number@vmobile.ca.
Virgin Mobile USA (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to number@vmobl.com.
Vodafone Italy (from: 20, msg: 132, total: 132)Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to number@sms.vodafone.it
Vodafone Japan (Chuugoku/Western) (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to number@n.vodafone.ne.jp
Vodafone Japan (Hokkaido) (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to number@d.vodafone.ne.jp
Vodafone Japan (Hokuriko/Central North) (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to number@r.vodafone.ne.jp
Vodafone Japan (Kansai/West -- including Osaka) (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to number@k.vodafone.ne.jp
Vodafone Japan (Kanto/Koushin/East -- including Tokyo) (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to number@t.vodafone.ne.jp
Vodafone Japan (Kyuushu/Okinawa) (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to number@q.vodafone.ne.jp
Vodafone Japan (Shikoku) (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to number@s.vodafone.ne.jp
Vodafone Japan (Touhoku/Niigata/North) (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to number@h.vodafone.ne.jp
Vodafone Japan (Toukai/Central) (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to number@c.vodafone.ne.jp
Vodafone Spain (from: 20, msg: 90, total: 90)Enter your username. Messages are sent to username@vodafone.es
Vodafone UK (from: 20, msg: 70, total: 90)Enter your username. Messages are sent to username@vodafone.net
Voicestream (from: 15, msg: 140, total: 140)Enter your 10-digit phone number. Message is sent via the email gateway, since they changed their web gateway and we have not gotten it working with the new one yet.
Weblink Wireless (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)Enter your phone number. Goes to @airmessage.net
WellCom (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)Enter your phone number. Goes to @sms.welcome2well.com
WyndTell (from: 20, msg: 480, total: 500)Enter username/phone number. Goes to @wyndtell.com
Sunday, 23 March 2008
Thursday, 14 June 2007
Home Truth about Telecoms
Home truths about telecoms
Jun 7th 2007From The Economist print edition
Technology and society: Anthropologists investigate the use of communications technology and reach some surprising conclusions
Belle Mellor
SUCH is the social significance of mobile phones that when it comes to evaluating their use and planning new products and services, mobile operators and handset-makers cannot rely on the technology-driven, engineering mindset that has traditionally dominated the telecoms industry. Most famously, industry leaders expected people to embrace videotelephony, which flopped, but failed to anticipate the success of text-messaging. So they are turning to social scientists, and in particular to anthropologists, the better to understand how telephones are used.
One of Nokia's in-house anthropologists, Jan Chipchase, recently investigated how people carry their phones, for example. He and his colleagues carried out street-level surveys in 11 cities on four continents. They found that 60% of men carried their phones in their trouser pockets, whereas 61% of women carried their phones in handbags. (The difficulty of finding a mobile phone in a cluttered handbag meant that half of women reported missing calls as a result.) Belt pouches were particularly popular in China: 19% of men used them in Beijing, and 38% in Ji Lin City. But they were less popular in fashion-conscious Milan, where only 4% of men used them, and belt pouches were non-existent in Tokyo. Adding covers to phones was most widespread in Seoul and Kampala, and the use of decorative phone straps was most popular in Seoul and Tokyo. Findings like these can help handset-makers design new products and accessories that are appropriate to particular markets.
Meanwhile, Stefana Broadbent, an anthropologist who leads the User Adoption Lab at Swisscom, Switzerland's largest telecoms operator, has been looking at usage patterns associated with different communications technologies. She and her team based their research on observation, interviews, surveys of users' homes and asking people to keep logbooks of their communications usage in several European countries. Some of their findings are quite unexpected. Although mobile phones make it easier to keep in regular touch with a wide group of friends, for example, it turns out that a typical user spends 80% of his or her time communicating with just four other people.
Next, despite much talk of “convergence” within the industry, people are in fact using different communications technologies in distinct and divergent ways. The fixed-line phone “is the collective channel, a shared organisational tool, with most calls made 'in public' because they are relevant to the other members of the household,” she says. Mobile calls are for last-minute planning or to co-ordinate travel and meetings. Texting is for “intimacy, emotions and efficiency”. E-mail is for administration and to exchange pictures, documents and music. Instant-messaging (IM) and voice-over-internet calls are “continuous channels”, open in the background while people do other things. “Each communication channel is performing an increasingly different function,” says Ms Broadbent.
Another finding is that despite the plunging cost of voice calls, and the rise of free internet-calling services such as Skype, people seem to prefer typing. “The most fascinating discovery I've made this year is a flattening in voice communication and an increase in written channels,” says Ms Broadbent. Her research in Switzerland and France found that even when people are given unlimited cheap or free calls, the number and length of calls does not increase significantly. This may be because there is only so much time you can spend talking; and when you are on the phone it is harder to do other things. Written channels such as e-mail, text-messaging and IM, by contrast, are discreet and allow contact to be continuous during the day. “Users are showing a growing preference for semi-synchronous writing over synchronous voice,” says Ms Broadbent.
And although the rise of the BlackBerry has prompted concern about work invading private life, the opposite actually seems to be true: private communications are invading the workplace. Workers expect to be plugged into their social networks while at work, whether by e-mail, IM or mobile phone. Last year at a food-processing factory near Geneva, the workers revolted when the director tried to ban mobile phones from the factory floor, and he was forced to relent. Their argument was that they wanted to be reachable during the day, just as people who sit at desks are.
Of course, improvements to mobile networks and the spread of third-generation (3G) and Wi-Fi networks mean that you no longer need to be at your desk to get things done. But Ms Broadbent found that there is not, in fact, much appetite for working while on the move. Indeed, she calls this “the hypermobility myth”. After studying workers who spend more than half their time out of the office—salesmen, consultants, pilots, journalists and photographers—she found that they generally stick to communications while on the move, gathering information that they then work on when they get back to their desks. Hotel rooms and airports are, she says, “not seen as an appropriate environment for substantive work” and are mainly used for e-mail.
Finally, Ms Broadbent found that migrants are the most advanced users of communications technology. A family of immigrant workers from Kosovo living in Switzerland has installed a big computer screen in their living room, for example, and almost every morning they have breakfast with their grandmother back home, via a webcam. It is migrants, rather than geeks, who have emerged as the “most aggressive” adopters of new communications tools, says Ms Broadbent. Dispersed families with strong ties and limited resources have taken to voice-over-internet services, IM and webcams, all of which are cheap or free. They also go online to get news or to download music from home. In the case of a Spanish family living in Switzerland, the daughter often does her homework with her aunt—but over a free Skype video-link, since the aunt lives in Spain.
Jun 7th 2007From The Economist print edition
Technology and society: Anthropologists investigate the use of communications technology and reach some surprising conclusions
Belle Mellor
SUCH is the social significance of mobile phones that when it comes to evaluating their use and planning new products and services, mobile operators and handset-makers cannot rely on the technology-driven, engineering mindset that has traditionally dominated the telecoms industry. Most famously, industry leaders expected people to embrace videotelephony, which flopped, but failed to anticipate the success of text-messaging. So they are turning to social scientists, and in particular to anthropologists, the better to understand how telephones are used.
One of Nokia's in-house anthropologists, Jan Chipchase, recently investigated how people carry their phones, for example. He and his colleagues carried out street-level surveys in 11 cities on four continents. They found that 60% of men carried their phones in their trouser pockets, whereas 61% of women carried their phones in handbags. (The difficulty of finding a mobile phone in a cluttered handbag meant that half of women reported missing calls as a result.) Belt pouches were particularly popular in China: 19% of men used them in Beijing, and 38% in Ji Lin City. But they were less popular in fashion-conscious Milan, where only 4% of men used them, and belt pouches were non-existent in Tokyo. Adding covers to phones was most widespread in Seoul and Kampala, and the use of decorative phone straps was most popular in Seoul and Tokyo. Findings like these can help handset-makers design new products and accessories that are appropriate to particular markets.
Meanwhile, Stefana Broadbent, an anthropologist who leads the User Adoption Lab at Swisscom, Switzerland's largest telecoms operator, has been looking at usage patterns associated with different communications technologies. She and her team based their research on observation, interviews, surveys of users' homes and asking people to keep logbooks of their communications usage in several European countries. Some of their findings are quite unexpected. Although mobile phones make it easier to keep in regular touch with a wide group of friends, for example, it turns out that a typical user spends 80% of his or her time communicating with just four other people.
Next, despite much talk of “convergence” within the industry, people are in fact using different communications technologies in distinct and divergent ways. The fixed-line phone “is the collective channel, a shared organisational tool, with most calls made 'in public' because they are relevant to the other members of the household,” she says. Mobile calls are for last-minute planning or to co-ordinate travel and meetings. Texting is for “intimacy, emotions and efficiency”. E-mail is for administration and to exchange pictures, documents and music. Instant-messaging (IM) and voice-over-internet calls are “continuous channels”, open in the background while people do other things. “Each communication channel is performing an increasingly different function,” says Ms Broadbent.
Another finding is that despite the plunging cost of voice calls, and the rise of free internet-calling services such as Skype, people seem to prefer typing. “The most fascinating discovery I've made this year is a flattening in voice communication and an increase in written channels,” says Ms Broadbent. Her research in Switzerland and France found that even when people are given unlimited cheap or free calls, the number and length of calls does not increase significantly. This may be because there is only so much time you can spend talking; and when you are on the phone it is harder to do other things. Written channels such as e-mail, text-messaging and IM, by contrast, are discreet and allow contact to be continuous during the day. “Users are showing a growing preference for semi-synchronous writing over synchronous voice,” says Ms Broadbent.
And although the rise of the BlackBerry has prompted concern about work invading private life, the opposite actually seems to be true: private communications are invading the workplace. Workers expect to be plugged into their social networks while at work, whether by e-mail, IM or mobile phone. Last year at a food-processing factory near Geneva, the workers revolted when the director tried to ban mobile phones from the factory floor, and he was forced to relent. Their argument was that they wanted to be reachable during the day, just as people who sit at desks are.
Of course, improvements to mobile networks and the spread of third-generation (3G) and Wi-Fi networks mean that you no longer need to be at your desk to get things done. But Ms Broadbent found that there is not, in fact, much appetite for working while on the move. Indeed, she calls this “the hypermobility myth”. After studying workers who spend more than half their time out of the office—salesmen, consultants, pilots, journalists and photographers—she found that they generally stick to communications while on the move, gathering information that they then work on when they get back to their desks. Hotel rooms and airports are, she says, “not seen as an appropriate environment for substantive work” and are mainly used for e-mail.
Finally, Ms Broadbent found that migrants are the most advanced users of communications technology. A family of immigrant workers from Kosovo living in Switzerland has installed a big computer screen in their living room, for example, and almost every morning they have breakfast with their grandmother back home, via a webcam. It is migrants, rather than geeks, who have emerged as the “most aggressive” adopters of new communications tools, says Ms Broadbent. Dispersed families with strong ties and limited resources have taken to voice-over-internet services, IM and webcams, all of which are cheap or free. They also go online to get news or to download music from home. In the case of a Spanish family living in Switzerland, the daughter often does her homework with her aunt—but over a free Skype video-link, since the aunt lives in Spain.
Saturday, 12 May 2007
Text Messaging SMS in the event of a dissaster
Thai tsunami victims use emergency phones, APCommunications are vital after a disaster strikesText messaging technology was a valuable communication tool in the aftermath of the tsunami disaster in Asia.The messages can get through even when the cell phone signal is too weak to sustain a spoken conversation.Now some are studying how the technology behind SMS could be better used during an emergency.Sanjaya Senanayake works for Sri Lankan television. The blogging world, though, might know him better by his online name, Morquendi.He was one of the first on the scene after the tsunami destroyed much of the Sri Lankan coast. Cell phone signals were weak. Land lines were unreliable.So Mr Senanayake started sending out text messages. The messages were not just the latest news they were also an on-the-ground assessment of "who needs what and where".Blogging friends in India took Mr Senanayake's text messages and posted them on a weblog called Dogs without Borders.Thousands around the world followed the story that unfolded in the text messages that he sent.Message manAnd that's when Mr Senanayake started to wonder if SMS might be put to more practical use."SMS networks can handle so much more traffic than the standard mobile phone call or the land line call," he says. Displaced family living in tent, AFPWeblogs aid disaster recovery"In every rural community, there's at least one person who has access to a mobile phone, or has a mobile phone, and can receive messages."Half a world away, in the Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago, Taran Rampersad read Morquendi's messages.Mr Rampersad, who used to work in the military, knew how important on the ground communication can be in times of disaster.He wondered if there might be a way to automatically centralise text messages, and then redistribute them to agencies and people who might be able to help.Mr Rampersad said: "Imagine if an aid worker in the field spotted a need for water purification tablets, and had a central place to send a text message to that effect."He can message the server, so the server can send out an e-mail message and human or machine moderators can e-mail aid agencies and get it out in the field."He added: "Or, send it at the same time to other people who are using SMS in the region, and they might have an excess of it, and be able to shift supplies to the right places."Old ideaMr Rampersad and others had actually been thinking about such a system since Hurricane Ivan ravaged the Caribbean and the southern United States last September.Last week, he sent out e-mail messages asking for help in creating such a system for Asia.Interstate bridges in Florida damaged by Hurricane Ivan, AFPThe idea for the text alert system came out of another disasterIn only 72 hours, he found Dan Lane, a text message guru living in Britain.The pair, along with a group of dedicated techies, are creating what they call the Alert Retrieval Cache.The idea is to use open-source software - software can be used by anyone without commercial restraint - and a far-flung network of talent to create a system that links those in need with those who can help."This is a classic smart mobs situation where you have people self-organizing into a larger enterprise to do things that benefit other people," says Paul Saffo, a director at the California-based Institute for the Future."You may be halfway around the world from someone, but in cyberspace you're just one click or one e-mail away," he said,"That's put a whole new dimension on disaster relief and recovery, where often people halfway around the world can be more effective in making something happen precisely because they're not right on top of the tragedy."It is still very early days for the project, though.In an e-mail, Dan Lane calls it "an early proof of concept." Right now, the Alert Retrieval Cache can only take a text message and automatically upload it to a web-page, or distribute it to an e-mail list.In the near future, the group says it hopes to take in messages from people in affected areas, and use human moderators to take actions based on the content of those messages.But there's still another challenge. You have to get people to know that the system is there for them to use."It's amazing how difficult it is to find someone to pass it along to, and say, look this is what we're trying to do and everything like that," says Mr Rampersad. "So the big problem right now is the same problem we're trying to solve - human communication."He is optimistic, however. He thinks that the Alert Retrieval Cache is an idea whose time has come and he hopes governments, too, will sit up and take notice.And he stands by his motto, courtesy of Michelangelo: criticise by creating.Clark Boyd is technology correspondent for The World, a BBC World Service and WGBH-Boston co-production.
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Tom SheahanRed Oxygentom.sheahan@redoxygen.comStudio A209 St John HillLondonSW111TH
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Tom SheahanRed Oxygentom.sheahan@redoxygen.comStudio A209 St John HillLondonSW111TH
USA SMS Text Messaging is doubling
USA SMS Traffic Almost Doubled in 2006 - reportThe USA's wireless trade association, CTIA has announced that wireless data service revenues for 2006 rose to US$15.2 billion. This represents a 77% increase over 2005, when data revenue was US$8.6 billion. Data revenue represents money that wireless carriers earn on services other than voice. Wireless data revenues now total roughly 13% of all wireless service revenues. "Wireless broadband is providing mobile subscribers with the ability to access content like never before," said CTIA - The Wireless Association President and CEO Steve Largent. "Earlier this year, the Federal Communications Commission reported that 59% of all new high-speed lines were wireless. Wireless broadband is growing faster than cable and DSL combined and because of that fact subscribers are accessing new and exciting types of content on their mobile devices."The survey also found that text messaging continues to be enormously popular, with more than 158 billion messages sent in 2006. This represents a 95% increase over 2005. Wireless subscribers are also sending pictures and other multimedia messages in droves, with more than 2.7 billion MMS messages sent in 2006, up from 1.1 billion in 2005.The foundation for these strong results is a near record increase in wireless subscribership. As of December 2006, the industry survey recorded more than 233 million wireless users. This represents a year-over-year increase of more than 25 million subscribers. The industry's 12-month record for subscriber growth was reached in 2005, when 25.7 million new users came online.Other highlights of the survey include: wireless customers using more than 1.7 trillion minutes in 2006, up 20% over 2005, and generating more than $125 billion in total wireless revenues.The Semi-Annual Wireless Industry Survey is completely voluntary and thus does not yield a 100% response rate from all service providers. You can download some charts from the report from the CTIA website (pdf file - 10 pages).
Text messaging in a crisis
The evening before an ice storm swept over the University of Texas at Austin, in January, administrators sent an urgent message to its 67,000students, faculty and staff: Stay home tomorrow. Thanks to a state-of-the-art emergency communications system, studentsinstantaneously received the alert as text messages on their cellphones and via email on their PCs. Building managers received a similar message on their pagers. And the university issued the warning live on local radio and television stations. A sample text alert from Mobile Campus that says 'University Alert: classes canceled and campus closed tomorrow due to severe storm.' The next day, the campus was empty, and there were no weather-related incidents. "It worked very well," said Rhonda Weldon, a member of the university's emergencycommunications team. With administrators at Virginia Tech facing hard questions about how long it took them to notify students after the firstkillings in Monday's shooting rampage there, emergency communication is sure to become a pressing issue nationwide.The ubiquity of relatively new technologies allows electronic alerts to reach more people faster than ever before. In theaftermath of several recent disasters -- including the tsunami in South Asia, Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast, and the terrorist attacks in New York, London and Madrid -- a growing number of governments, communities, school systems and universities have begun using automated electronic-alertsystems that can send voice, email or text messages to residents and students, in addition to traditional broadcast emergency messages. The services mean that people no longer need to be listening to radio,watching TV, logged on to their email or near a home phone to be warned of trouble. "We've never had a culture that was more accessible to being informed," said Gerard Braud, a Louisianabased crisis-communications consultant, adding that "when you don't communicate rapidly either in advance of or during an event, people get hurt."Emergency systems that include text messages are easily available and generally aren't very expensive -- some new pilot programs even are supported by advertising. Ms.Weldon says text messaging is particularly efficient because students carry their cellphones all the time. "They'll see [text messages] before they open up their emails," she says. Not only do people need access to the Internet, she says,mail is also slowest to reach recipients: It could take one hour to 1½ hours to send an email to all 67,000 users. More traditional systems feature automated callers that can blast a prerecorded message to thousands of people in amatter of seconds. Teleparent Educational Systems LLC charges $3 to $4.50 per student per year for automated phone alert services. School administrators can go online and record their message and send it out right away. Mobile Campus -- which provides text-message services to more than a dozen customers, including the University of Texas -- offers its services free of charge on the condition that the universities allow the company to send two promotional text messages per day to students who subscribe to their services. E2Campus, another textmessaging company that has more than 30 customers, charges $1 a year per student for universities to use their communications services. Both companies say that they received an overwhelming number of inquiries after the Virginia Tech shootings. Businesses have also begun using such systems. APS Healthcare Inc., a health and disease managementservice provider in Silver Spring, Md., and ATA Engineering Inc., an engineering test company in San Diego, are both using an emergency alert service provided by Omnilert LLC, parent company of e2Campus. Omnilert charges companies $9,500 a year to send unlimited alerts to 10,000 users via email, text message,pager and the Internet.Hundreds of communities and schools already have electronic communications systems. Westchester County, N.Y., can send residents email, text messages and phone messages in case of a serious emergency. Virginia Tech students watch a convocation from the football field yesterday. At Virginia Tech, emergency communications on Monday included email but not cellphone text messages. Amid questions about whether Virginia Tech administrators should have more quickly closed campus and canceled classes, what is clear is that the university lacks any means of immediately alerting its roughly 33,000 students, faculty and staff to an emergency. Of course, any system is only as good as the information officials have at any time. At Virginia Tech, authorities originally thought the shooting of the first two students was a "domestic" dispute that wouldn't require a more robust response. Two hours after the first two people were shot in a dormitory, the university sent the first of four email blasts to students, faculty and staff. The first note, sent at 9:26 a.m., warned all "to be cautious" and encouraged people to report any suspicious activity. A 911 call about another shooting at a classroom building across campus arrived at 9:45 a.m., prompting another university email sent five minutes later: "A gunman is loose on campus. Stay in buildings until further notice. Stay away from all windows." No mention of the actual massacre or its location in NorrisHall was sent until more than an hour after it occurred, according to reports. The university also relied on its Web site and the dormitory phone system. But administrators have acknowledged that these methods can't reach the thousands who at any moment aren't logged on to theInternet, while the dormitory phone system can't reach the 17,000 students who live off campus. The school began exploring the installation of an emergency alert-system that issues text messages to mobile phones last semester after having trouble spreading an alert in August about the escape of a jail inmate, whoshot and killed two people and then hid on campus before being caught.
Text Messaging for Emergencies
Text messaging is on the rise as the importance for instantaneous communication increases. A text message can be sent to thousands of students and staff within schools and universities and received on a mobile phone within minutes. "An email is just too slow, and calling thousands of people is impossible, who will remember to check their voicemail and there are only 5 million Blackberries globally" Kassandra Macdade, Marketing Manager Red Oxygen.
In the case when an email is just inaccessible, and calling thousands of people is too time-consuming, sending bulk text messages from Red Oxygen is the answer.
The recent Virginia Tech tragedy is the deadliest school shooting in the US and has renewed concern over school security and procedures for emergencies. In a time when people need to be notified immediately no matter where they are, a text message alert is the most effective.
It is a challenge for schools and colleges to communicate with all staff and students in a timely and efficient manner. University Emergency Operations Centres can communicate with faculty, staff, students and parents efficiently via text messaging. If recipients could receive a text alert message instantaneously it could potentially save lives.
A report produced from Pew Research Centre said "74% of the Americans who own mobile phones say they have used their hand held device in an emergency and gained valuable help". Almost 200 million Americans own a mobile phone and there are over 2.3 billion text messaging enabled devices world wide, making it one of the most effective communication tools.
About Red Oxygen
Established in Australia in 2001, Red Oxygen is one of the world's leading developers and distributors of Enterprise SMS / Text messaging software applications and services. Red Oxygen combines the power of today's email applications, instant messaging clients or CRM applications with the ease, convenience and mobility of SMS / text messaging. Their seamlessly integrated products allow users to utilise the full capabilities of their existing contacts address book to send SMS / Text messages to specific individuals or entire lists, all as easily as sending an email. Users can also have their calendar reminders automatically sent to their mobiles, send broadcast SMS / Text messages to large lists and even receive replies straight into their inboxes from message recipients. Red Oxygen software is available for Microsoft Outlook, Windows, IBM's Sametime Lotus Notes.
Red Oxygen has clients across a broad array of industries and geographies. Their current customer list includes clients such as Pfizer, BMW, Qantas, Microsoft, Siemens, Panasonic, Deloitte, IBM, Accenture, Frito Lay, Billabong, 3M and others. These customers span Australia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and North America. Red Oxygen's products are also distributed by HP, Swisscom Mobile, the largest mobile operator in Switzerland, and Vodafone Portugal, part of the world's largest wireless cross-country operator.
For More Information
Kassandra Macdade
Red Oxygen
Level 9
445 Upper Edward Street
Brisbane, QLD
4000
Phone: +61 7 3100 8836
Email: kassandra.macdade@redoxygen.com
In the case when an email is just inaccessible, and calling thousands of people is too time-consuming, sending bulk text messages from Red Oxygen is the answer.
The recent Virginia Tech tragedy is the deadliest school shooting in the US and has renewed concern over school security and procedures for emergencies. In a time when people need to be notified immediately no matter where they are, a text message alert is the most effective.
It is a challenge for schools and colleges to communicate with all staff and students in a timely and efficient manner. University Emergency Operations Centres can communicate with faculty, staff, students and parents efficiently via text messaging. If recipients could receive a text alert message instantaneously it could potentially save lives.
A report produced from Pew Research Centre said "74% of the Americans who own mobile phones say they have used their hand held device in an emergency and gained valuable help". Almost 200 million Americans own a mobile phone and there are over 2.3 billion text messaging enabled devices world wide, making it one of the most effective communication tools.
About Red Oxygen
Established in Australia in 2001, Red Oxygen is one of the world's leading developers and distributors of Enterprise SMS / Text messaging software applications and services. Red Oxygen combines the power of today's email applications, instant messaging clients or CRM applications with the ease, convenience and mobility of SMS / text messaging. Their seamlessly integrated products allow users to utilise the full capabilities of their existing contacts address book to send SMS / Text messages to specific individuals or entire lists, all as easily as sending an email. Users can also have their calendar reminders automatically sent to their mobiles, send broadcast SMS / Text messages to large lists and even receive replies straight into their inboxes from message recipients. Red Oxygen software is available for Microsoft Outlook, Windows, IBM's Sametime Lotus Notes.
Red Oxygen has clients across a broad array of industries and geographies. Their current customer list includes clients such as Pfizer, BMW, Qantas, Microsoft, Siemens, Panasonic, Deloitte, IBM, Accenture, Frito Lay, Billabong, 3M and others. These customers span Australia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and North America. Red Oxygen's products are also distributed by HP, Swisscom Mobile, the largest mobile operator in Switzerland, and Vodafone Portugal, part of the world's largest wireless cross-country operator.
For More Information
Kassandra Macdade
Red Oxygen
Level 9
445 Upper Edward Street
Brisbane, QLD
4000
Phone: +61 7 3100 8836
Email: kassandra.macdade@redoxygen.com
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