Clickatell SMS

An industry initiative to streamline SMS interconnectivity between operators will see Clickatell, the world's premier mobile messaging operator, become a key regional processing hub for messages.
SMS hubs dramatically streamline the process of SMS inter-working among operators in the world, traditionally done via bilateral relationships.By connecting to an SMS hub an operator gets access to all the other mobile networks connected to that hub and other connected regional hubs.This solution ensures that operators and their customers will benefit from a high level of service quality, and protection against spam, security, billing and settlement, while maintaining the independence of each operator to determine its own pricing structures.
As well as simplifying the connections between GSM networks, the hubs will enable access to and from non-GSM operators, including conversion to and from CDMA technology. The hubs will also remove potential access protocol issues by allowing translation between IP and SS7.
Clickatell's experience in aggregating and optimising mobile network routes for SMS delivery, as well as its SS7 capability via its own carrier grade messaging infrastructure, gives the company the ideal pedigree to be a primary hubbing partner for operators.
The GSM Association concluded a full-scale pan-continental hubbing trial during September 2006 as part of its Open Hubbing Connectivity Project.The trial involved various SMS hub providers, including Clickatell, demonstrating inter-working and taking responsibility for all billable revenue on SMS traffic sent via the hubs.

Text Message Saves Teen

A teenager who text messaged his family telling them he was being held against his will is now back with is family. The 17-year-old met a man online and then went to Georgia to visit him.
Once the boy got there, he was taken to the man's farm home and sexually abused. The boy met 58-year-old Ted Roy Williams on the Web site Myspace.com. Williams is now facing false imprisonment and aggravated sodomy charges. His bond is set at $1 million.
While the boy was left unattended for several hours in the home, he was able to send a text message from his cell phone to his family in Massachusetts, asking for help and giving the farm's address.

Teen Arrested For Text Message Threat

Amid the recent outbreak of gun violence in American schools, a local teen is arrested for threatening to bring a gun to school.
Police say that a 15-year-old Northwest High School student sent a text message saying that he was bringing a gun to school because he was sick of Nortwest High.
The school, located in Colerain Township was put on lockdown as police confirmed the message and arrived at the school.
The teen was arrested at his home on Fullerton Road in Springfield Township.
He has been charged with Inducing panic and he was taken to the Hamilton County Juvenile Detention Center.

Sprint Nextel increases SMS Fees

Sprint Nextel increased the cost of a text message by 5 cents, which the carrier hopes will get users to convert to plans with bulk rates.
Text messages sent or received on a Sprint or Nextel phone now cost 15 cents apiece, up from the industry standard of 10 cents.

Plus SMS

The company didn't have one dollar of revenue to its name but the market cap was about $270 million. It seemed like the tech bubble all over again with the company making grandiose promises and investors, I mean speculators, taking it in hook, line and sinker.
Ten months ago this column commented on Plus SMS, noting the rather obvious problem of no revenue and a huge market cap. The conclusion was drawn that this was either the best idea of all time (beating out even the venerable sliced bread) or that everyone had gone nuts and were partying like it was 1999.
Last Friday the company announced a "strategic review and restructure".
The founding managing director Garry Donoghue and chairman Jim Bracknell were gone and new people put on to the board. With any company this would be sensational news, but there was more.
Plus SMS also announced that a number of earlier press releases were "incorrect" and that the actual situation was a good deal removed from the picture the earlier press releases painted.
The new man in charge, Chris Tiensch, was appointed in June as the chief executive of the British-based operating company but now has responsibility for the listed entity as well. He had the awful job of telling the market the bad news and the outlook for the company going forward.
Bottom line is that it will take a lot longer, be a lot harder and cost a lot more money

Penn State SMS News Service

As with the university's news service, anyone is eligible to subscribe to the SMS service. PSUTXT information, however, will be geared toward Penn State students, faculty and staff, said Annemarie Mountz, assistant director of Public Information for Internet Communications at Penn State.
"For now, we decided to start with those three (topics). It will expand, but we are keeping in mind that people's phone services charge them for text messages. We are going to make sure it's information they really want," Mountz said.
Penn State Live already offers news for both general and campus-related events. People can also subscribe to RSS feeds by category. Since more and more students are using text messaging on cell phones, the extension of news alerts to mobile devices was the next logical step, said Mountz, who manages the Penn State Live site and Penn State's Newswire service.

SMS Record Holder Ben Cook

Ben Cook, 18, regained his title by typing "the razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human."He typed the message commonly used in professional competitions in 42.44 seconds.The message has 160 characters which is the maximum number of characters that can be sent in a text message.Cook was the record holder in 2004 with a time of 57.75 seconds until a woman from Singapore broke it with a time of 43.24 seconds.But as fast as he can send a message, Cook has the title back.He competed against 14 top qualifiers from Pueblo, Colorado Springs, Ft. Collins and Denver.

Skyscape Launches Ground-Breaking MedAlert Medical Text Messaging Service for Cell Phones

For a small monthly fee and by texting the keyword "medalert" to 36637, medical professionals can subscribe to MedAlert and receive up-to-the-minute medical news alerts via their cell phone. Users can customize their alerts by Specialty Interest Groups, and breaking medical news is communicated as it occurs, with a clear and concise text message. Since MedAlert has full email integration, the subscriber can instantly have complete medical articles sent to an email address simply by replying to the text message.
"Cell phones are quickly transcending communication from its traditional voice-centric modality to a far more powerful, yet silent modality -- text messaging," states Sandeep Shah, President and CEO of Skyscape. "While the young subscribers love to trade short notes and updates, until recently there has been little broad-based adoption by the professional community. With Skyscape's MedAlert, medical professionals are poised to utilize the benefits of this easy-to-use, efficient service to receive tailored information right on their cell. With virtually every healthcare professional owning a cell phone, this offers a quick way to receive relevant medical content vital to their medical specialty."

Blue Frog Mobile Launches TXTV With Text Messaging for Los Angeles TV Viewers

TXTV, the first service of its kind in the United States, allows television viewers to send text messages directly to their TV screens and chat with other viewers. It is the first technology to offer true two-way participation between viewers, using their mobile phones and their television sets. With TXTV, viewers can interact with television programs and with one another for a true participatory TV experience.