Short Message Service or SMS is an extremely popular data service for mobile operators in Europe and Asia. So popular in fact, that the GSM networks that support it are on the verge of breaking. In Europe SMS services are already straining mobile infrastructure. Europeans and Asians have taken to SMS like the US has taken to the internet. SMS is a text based messaging
service between mobile users. SMS messages are limited to 160 characters, but its use is wide and varied. The SMS text messages ride on the date channel of the SS7 network within the mobile network infrastructure. The number of messages sent are huge, and more importantly, subscribers pay for them. SMS has grown to 24 B messages sent in May 2002 worldwide from 7
B messages in the same month two years ago, according to the GSM Association, www.gsmworld.com.

SMS Slow To Grow In The US

But the U.S. lags far behind Europe in the use of SMS largely because operators have been slow to tackle system compatibility problems. U.K. users send as many SMS messages in a month as Americans do in a year, says Jupiter Research www.jupiterresearch.com. Considering that more fancy digital color screen mobile phones are coming onto the US market with
operators such as AT&T´s m-life www.att.com and Sprint www.sprint.com pushing the service, could SMS take off in the U.S., too?

The ability to deliver messages on the move gives SMS an edge over e-mail. For example, VirusAlert sends warnings to subscribers’ mobile phones in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg about new computer viruses. They can tell a user what they look like, how they influence a computer system and what preventive measures can be taken. Mal & Co., uses SMS
to make sure people don’t miss a party of a new artist they represent. Zurich city officials use SMS to remind people when recycling-pickup dates are coming. West Midland´s police set up an SMS number for deaf and mute people to contact them. In short, SMS is a part of European life and many are now trying to make this wireless lifestyle richer.

SMS Grows Volumetrically

Some are now considering a WAP push on top of SMS, which can grow into a more rich set of data services. But the SMS phenomena is consuming bandwidth that was put in place for a control channel not a data service and this bandwidth is near its limit in some markets. Also, European GSM mobile access networks are flat requiring aggregation equipment to support the
increasing SMS load. This fact has many mobile operators nervous and equipment suppliers ready to help. In short there is a looming bottleneck building in the infrastructure that supports SMS. Within 3 years, most of these networks will have to be re-architected to support larger volumes of SMS messages. With the potential combination of WAP and SMS, many feel that
this data service will force a re-architecting of mobile infrastructure. The boom in SMS, is much like the off-load dial-up problem we have in the US. When internet access boomed in the mid to late 90s, over 40 million PCs were dialing up internet access
services through central office switches. This added unpredicted load on central office switches clogging them with long hold down times which interrupting voice service. At times, emergency voice services such as 911 would be blocked. Erlang tables, used by telecom engineers for capacity planning of central office switch volume was no longer adequate to predict traffic load
and service levels.

Off Loading SMS On To IP

Softswitches and broadband access helped move internet access users off dial connections onto a packet mode service. To allow SMS to grow, mobile operators will have to move SMS off the SS7 network and on to a pure packet infrastructure such as IP. Cisco www.cisco.com has it´s ITP or IP Transfer Point protocol implemented in its 2650/2651 and 7507/7513 routers for
transporting SS7 traffic over IP. ITP is being used in Italy, Korea and other markets to place SMS traffic onto a packet network. This will allow mobile operators to place SMS traffic on a packet mode network and let it grow seamlessly. Cisco isn´t the only vendor providing SMS off load. Most of the other large players in the mobile market have product to scale up SMS as it
transitions from just text to MMS and/or WAP over SMS.

While SMS is big in Europe and Asia, it´s unclear if the US will follow their lead. The Europeans and Asians have been trained to pay transactionally for SMS. But in the US, data service billing is based on the internet access model, a flat, all you can eat, fee. There´s also a difference in how mobile phones are used in the US. Cell phones are not powered on all the time in the US, with the exception of Nextel customers who use Direct Connect©, the walkie-talkie feature which allows direct connections between Nextel end points without dialing a number. So the US market is different both culturally, how mobile phones are used, and how its customers pay for data service.

Experimentation is taking place now in the US to figure out how best to offer messaging services. The blackberry model has found acceptance in the business market. But many mobile operators are seeking a richer set of messaging services that may include streaming data of stock, news, weather and other information. In short, look for mobile operators to offer messaging with bundles of customizable information that is streamed to mobile phones and other devices, reachable through a variety of networks. While it´s unclear if SMS will be a consumer success in the US, mobile operators are looking more toward businesses to sell their messaging services.

Service Extension over CDMA, Wi-Fi, & IP Telephony Networks

The area that I find most exciting and promising is the linkage between mobile operators, public and private Wi-Fi operators and IP Telephony. On January 13th, 2003 Avaya www.avaya.com , Motorola www.motorola.com and Proxim www.proxim.com announced a joint relationship to extend IP Telephony solutions over wireless networks. Motorola is committing to build a duel
mode CDMA/GSM and 802.11 phone and mobility manager that allows hand-offs between Wi-Fi and mobile operator networks in mid conversation. Proxim proposed to deliver access points that support 802.11e (quality of service) and 802.11i (WEP replacement) allowing IP Telephony calls to flow over public and private Wi-Fi networks. Their focus is mainly enterprise voice over
Wi-Fi. Avaya promised to extend MultiVantage IP telephony features over Wi-Fi networks and add SIP to end points, enabling ?¬¢‚Äö?ᬮ??¨presence?¬¢‚Äö?ᬮ¬¨?? based messaging.

How can enterprise networks use this? In essence an enterprise would be able to use the new Motorola phone to make wireless calls in and out of their office building. If you are within your building, your voice call would stay on the enterprise IP Telephony network saving cellular phone cost. When you are outside of the enterprise, you can use the same phone to make calls on your
chosen mobile network. This would eliminate the need for two v-mail boxes and telephone numbers, one from a mobile operator and one from your enterprise. It would also eliminate the need for two separate phones, one to use while at the office and one to use in between home and work.

This is an excellent start to the blurring of GSM/CDMA & 802.11 networks. In short this announcement kicks off the battle over wireless network supremacy between net heads (data or IP network companies) and bell heads (traditional CDMA/GSM companies). There is much to be done here if this type of architecture is to work. Roaming agreements and hand-off technology
needs to be put in place and proven. Integration services that tie CDMA/GSM, Wi-Fi and enterprise IP telephony networks together need to be offered. Motorola and others need to prove that they can build a handheld device for Wi-Fi networks that is cost effective and has battery life equal to or better then existing cellular phones.

Mobile operators need a strong business case to get on board too. One possible case is that mobile operators can increase messaging revenues by extending messaging services into the enterprise. In essence, within a unified messaging platform, a message could find you, based upon presence, whether you are at your computer, laptop or on your cell phone independent of
location. Currently mobile operator services are cut off from cell phones when individuals enter their office buildings since they often shut them off and/or interference blocks reception. Further, with Avaya´s MultiVantage features available to the Motorola combo CDMA/wi-fi phone, a feature set normally available on desktop phones would now be accessible on your cell phone.
The cell phone would work across wireless and IP telephony networks, opening up new revenue opportunities to the mobile operators inside an enterprise network. To achieve this model, Wi-Fi access point cost needs to plummet so pervasive Wi-Fi services can be deployed in the enterprise. Look for Wi-Fi wireless switches from Proxim, 3Com and Symbol et al within a year, which move Wi-Fi features into LAN switches dumbing down access points and reducing their associated cost. In short, a lot has to happen to create seamless CDMA/Wi-Fi/IP Telephony networks, but that’s the way all big markets start. So will the US
adopt a European style SMS messaging service? I wouldn´t hold my breath.

Posted 15 March 2003 at 6:59 pm under Lippis Report, Enterprise Mobility. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.