BROWSING: SMS

Adults warming up to SMS chatting

PLANO, Texas—A new study shows short message service chatting, embraced by European youth as the new cool way to communicate, is now quickly becoming a mainstay among adults age 35 and over.The latest Mobinet study, which covered 2,400 mobile-phone users in six countries, was...

TDC Mobile, CMG announce plans for pan-European WAP gateway

NEIUWEGEIN, the Netherlands—TDC Mobile International and CMG Wireless Data Solutions announced their plans to create a pan-European revenue-sharing WAP gateway, which the companies said will give content providers a simple, unified method to offer their services to Europe's 320 million mobile customers.The situation now,...

MIGway to offer Hotmail access in Europe

LONDON—Just days after the initial launch of MIGway, the new joint venture between TDC Mobile International and CMG Wireless Data Solutions, the companies announced they will offer wireless access to MSN Hotmail e-mail services to select European carriers.MSN Hotmail is one of the world's...

Industry wades into wireless ad waters

Advertisers, like everyone else, want the biggest bang for their buck.They want to reach as many people as possible without a lot of expense, and they want to get those people to see and understand their ad. Advertisers want to own the eyeballs of...

FunMail supports Nokia image format

PLEASANTON, Calif.-FunMail Inc. said it will support the Picture Messaging format from Nokia Corp. within its wireless messaging system.Under the system, users could simply type a short message service message that would trigger the use of a Nokia Picture message that would be sent...

Slovenia’s Mobitel launches m-commerce system

BUCHAREST, Romania—Slovenian mobile operator Mobitel announced the first Slovenian mobile payment service called Moneta. The system can be used for paying for contents on the Internet, as well as paying for services and products.Mobitel's subscribers register via their mobile telephone numbers and receive a...

Australians to receive SMS-based game

SYDNEY, Australia—Telstra Mobile said it launched the first short message service (SMS) game in Australia. The game is based on the television program "Who Wants to be a Millionaire."Telstra said its customers send more than 70 million mobile messages a month. It plans to...

Pure Matrix aims to simplify customization of mobile data

NEW YORK-The mission of Pure Matrix Inc., a Boulder, Colo., start-up, is to make mass customization of mobile data nice and easy so customers will use it more and place greater value on its delivery and the carriers that transmit it.A European wireless carrier...

Stick Networks to deliver device for media-rich content

With less than two years in the game, software platform provider Stick Networks has already made a name for itself with its flagship Personal Digital Network, a wireless platform that incorporates seamless integrated communications with advanced content delivery capabilities, to offer end users a...

Products

Handsets/ devicesMitsubishiMitsubishi released three new handsets. The Eclipse is a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) phone with a color display. The dual-band phone offers 256 colors and up to 86 kilobits-per-second data speeds. It has several features for business users. The phone allows users...

Opinion: SMS is first-generation m-commerce

COPENHAGEN, Denmark-The discussion surrounding m-commerce includes questions such as whether m-commerce will be a success and what kind of services will be purchased via a mobile phone. Research shows that the "m" not only stands for mobile but also for micro-commerce.Believing customers will order...

Comverse scores Hong Kong contract

WOODBURY, N.Y.-Comverse today scored a major sale, announcing that all six Hong Kong mobile operators will use the company's Intelligent Short Message Service Center to support SMS messages among the carriers' networks.Comverse said its ISMSC product will allow all of the city's 5.4 million...

M-Services initiative comes out of the gate running

The GSM Association-the body behind GSM and GPRS networks, as well as the popular short message service-announced last week another standards effort, one that some industry observers believe will be a major catalyst for the worldwide uptake of the mobile Internet."We view the creation...

Asian manufacturers could slip into European 3G market

Timing is everything. As European wireless markets face saturation, the rollout of next-generation services becomes even more essential to the continued growth of the industry. "Ultimately, the potential is there, the question is, can the handset manufacturers come out with the handsets and can...

Products

Cellemetry L.L.C.Numerex Corp. announced that its subsidiary, Cellemetry L.L.C., will incorporate Ida Corp.'s Global Trakit Data Center in its Cellemetry network, enabling automatic vehicle location and remote asset management. According to Geoff Girdler, head of the Numerex wireless communication group, "This powerful tool for...

Airtel selects Comverse SMS product

WOODBURY, N.Y.-Comverse, a unit of Comverse Technology Inc., announced its Intelligent Short Message Service Center (ISMSC) was selected by Airtel Mobil, a mobile operator in Spain and part of the Vodafone Group.Airtel will implement Comverse's short message service solutions, which is based on a...

Group to work on SMS standards

Some of the world's largest wireless vendors are working to bypass carrier interoperability issues by supporting a standard they say will let users send advanced short message service messages back and forth between phones, regardless of the network."This is a way to help carriers...

Mixed message: Speakers spar over paging’s future at SCA show

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C.-Executives of Motorola Inc. and the Personal Communications Industry Association sparred over the future of paging and device-makers' support for it at last week's Southeastern Communications Association "Wireless Messaging 2001" conference held here."Although we have seen some decline this year, early on...

Tapping teens: Cool sells, study says

An overlooked and potentially huge segment of the mobile-phone market is eagerly following the exploits of Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys. This segment watches PG-13 movies and, in general, must be dragged kicking and screaming to middle and high school.This segment is the...

Comverse cleared to offer voice mail, SMS to Chinese operators

WOODBURY, N.Y.-Comverse, a unit of Comverse Technology Inc., has been authorized by the Ministry of Information and Industry to sell voice mail and short message service technologies to service providers in China.Six Chinese mobile operators including Guangdong Mobile, Shanghai Mobile, Liaoning Mobile, Hei Longjiang...

Global SMS growth continues

LONDON-More than 50 billion short message service text messages were sent over the world's GSM networks in the first three months of 2001, the GSM Association reported. The association said the growth in SMS-from 1 billion messages per month in April 1999 to an...

People

Heinz Corp.Heinz Corp., which provides services to wireless carriers, has promoted Rick Vogt to senior project manager. In his new position he will be responsible for Heinz's projects for Cingular Wireless. Vogt has been with Heinz for about a year, and most recently supervised...

VoiceStream turns on Ping Pong SMS service

Short messaging service has found a niche in Europe with the youth market sending billions of short notes to each other during the past year. SMS messages often only cost pennies per messages. But with more than 5 billion SMS messages sent each month,...

RIM to stake claim in future networks, devices, technologies

NEW YORK-Although growing use of Research In Motion's BlackBerry e-mail service has congested wireless networks in some areas, paging carriers are not well-positioned to seize this opportunity to serve as alternative providers, said Jim Balsillie, co-chief executive officer of RIM."Paging carriers have tried to...