More Information

Introduction

Short Message Service (SMS) is a mobile data service that allows alphanumeric messaging between mobile phones and other equipment such as voice mail systems and email.

Research

Wholesale Mobile Report

Secrets of MVNO Success

Mobile in Minute papers

Technology

SMS is a store-and-forward system. Messages are sent to a Short Message Service Center (SMSC) from various devices such as another mobile phone or via email. The SMSC interacts with the mobile network to determine the availability of a user and the user's location to receive a short message.

Because SMS uses the control channel (rather than the voice channel), a unique feature of SMS is that the user can receive a SMS whether or not a call is in progress - the phone need only be turned on. If the phone is not turned on, the SMSC will wait until the phone is turned on to send the message. A "message received" is sent to the SMSC from the MSC upon delivery to the mobile device, allowing the SMSC to provide confirmation of receipt to the sender upon request.

One of the issues with SMS is interoperability between different technologies such as CDMA and GSM.  To accomplish messaging between these different technologies, Inter-carrier Messaging technology must be deployed to provide for messaging between mobile operators with different technologies.

Business Issues

SMS first appeared in GSM in about 1991. SMS later appeared in CDMA and TDMA networks. Mobile Origination (MO) - a key feature of SMS, allowing the user to originate SMS messages from the handset - has only became available to non-GSM users in 2000.

SMS has become a key service for mobile operators, generating tremendous usage, particularly among the youth market segment. With the advent of technologies such as WAP and the introduction of GPRS and 3G, some question the future of SMS. It is clear, however, that SMS will have a long life as a low-bandwidth messaging service, available on all types of phones.

Benefits of SMS

SMS increases the amount of voice calling by providing a mechanism for voice mail notification to the handset.

SMS provides a convenient, low-cost mechanism for non-voice communication.

SMS provides a mechanism for enabling various other applications such as prepaid.

SMS Enabled Applications

SMS can be used for a variety of uses in conjunction with mobile prepay including notification of low balance and balance inquiry, short codes used in conjunction with prepaid roaming, and even SMS itself can be provided on a prepaid basis by the mobile network operator.

When used in conjunction with the SIM Toolkit, SMS can be used as the vehicle for a variety of secure transaction-oriented services such as mobile banking.