Competition searches for 'best text message'

Mobile application blog SMS is the new Black is running a competition to find the best text message sent or received in January 2009. It's an entertaining promotional exercise... and it'll be interesting to see the results. [Press release]

Electricity by SMS

Rwanda's national electricity company, Electrogaz, has been selling prepaid electricity scratch-cards since the beginning of last year. Customers buy a card, scratch off the serial number, send a text message and receive a unique code that lets them add the credit to their electricity meter. Apparently 30% of the country’s electricity consumers now purchase their electricity this way. [Source: Nathan Eagle via Telco2.net]

New premium rate mobile rules for UK

Premium phone service regulator PhonepayPlus has set out new measures for the mobile premium content market. With immediate effect companies offering mobile subscription services charging over £4.50 a week or applying pay-per-page mobile internet charges must apply for permission from PhonepayPlus. In addition, customers must receive a free confirmation text message and must reply to that text before the service starts. [Press release]

New Year's Eve texting

O2 and Vodafone have both released their 'New Year' text figures for the UK - and they're pretty evenly matched. O2 says a record 166 million messages were sent over its network in the 24-hour period ending at 7.30 am on New Year’s Day 2009, while Vodafone says nearly 170 million text messages were sent over its network during a similar 24-hour period. Vodafone added that its customers also sent 1 million picture messages on Christmas Day. [Sources: 160characters.org; MobileIndustryReview.com]

Reports say train crash engineer regularly used his mobile

The engineer allegedly responsible for the fatal Los Angeles rail crash on 12th September 2008 was known to regularly use his mobile phone while operating trains, according to reports that quote a lawyer acting for several victims. [Sources: Cellular-News.com; NYTimes.com]

Texperts taken over by kgb's 118118

New York-based kgb, the company behind directory enquiry service 118118, has taken over text message service Texperts. Texperts was previously known as 82ASK until rebranding in 2007. [Source: MarketWatch.com]

In-flight texts from London to Moscow

bmi has become the first British airline to offer its passengers an in-flight communications service that includes text messages, email and internet browsing from mobile phones and PDAs. The service, supplied by OnAir, is being trialled for six months on an Airbus A320 aircraft operating between Heathrow and Moscow. [Press release]

Virgin Mobile "literally over the moon" with new text service

It's not often that I quote a press release verbatim. Here's one of those exceptions:

Virgin Mobile launch 'Texts into Space' service
ONE SMALL TEXT FOR MAN,ONE GIANT LEAP FOR VIRGIN MOBILE

Virgin Mobile today announce the launch of ‘Texts into Space’, a service which allows people to send their text declarations of love and affection into the unchartered territories of space where they will travel through the cosmos for all eternity.

Ever said ‘I'll love forever’? Well now you can prove it!

Launching just in time for Christmas this is a unique gift idea for any loved one. The texts are transmitted via a satellite Earth Station in Cornwall by SentForever.com. Once sent you can ensure your message will live on eternally, a concept that will surely touch the recipients heart.
The ‘text into space’ costs the price of a normal text and can be sent from any mobile phone by texting the desired message to the Virgin Mobile short code 80995. Then, for just £9.95, the message recipient will receive a formal ‘Certificate of Transmission’ from SentForever.com confirming the launch of the eternal message and details of how to track the message on the SentForever.com website as it continues to travel through time and space. Email updates are also available to alert the recipient as to when their message has passed key milestones.

Tim Dowling from Virgin Mobile said "We are quite literally over the moon at the thought of millions of wishes and messages of love being texted into space".

[Press release]

Name-calling for textlemmings

Here's the perfect antidote for our previous story. Professor Peter Norton from the University of Virginia says mobile phone users who walk into traffic while texting need to be given a derogatory name. He says it worked to dissuade jaywalkers - a term that entered the dictionary just ten years after it was devised - and wonders whether ‘textlemmings’ would work. [Source: Cellular-News.com]

Ofcom says messaging revenue is falling as volume increases

Ofcom has just published its Telecommunications Market Data Update for the second quarter of 2008. It says the number of SMS and MMS messages sent was 4.8% higher than in the previous quarter. although messaging revenue fell by 1.7% over the same period. Total mobile revenue across the four mobile operators in the survey (Vodafone, O2, Orange and T-Mobile) increased by 1.2% compared to the previous quarter, driven by a 1.9% increase in revenue from calls and other charges. [Press release]

SMS is still king for mobile data revenue

Portio Research says text messaging will still be the leading revenue-generator from mobile data for several years. Volume and revenue are both expected to continue growing through the current economic downturn, with the whole mobile messaging industry - currently worth $130 billion - predicted to be worth $224 billion by 2013. The company also says that the number of mobile email users worldwide will quadruple from approximately a quarter of a billion users in 2008 to over a billion users by the end of 2013 - and mobile instant messaging users will increase from 111 million users worldwide in 2008 to 867 million users by the end of 2013. [Press release]

Mobile usage hasn't changed for 5 years

Research from connectivity specialist AppTrigger reveals that 57% of UK adults and 30% of North Americans say they've not changed the way in which they use mobiles since 2003. Voice calls and text messages are still the main applications. [Source: Cellular-News.com]

Smarter phones mean more security risks

Mobile messaging company Airwide Solutions says European mobile phone customers are now receiving 21.3% more unwanted text messages than they did last year - with France suffering a 61.3% increase. [Press release]

EC moves closer to capping 'roaming' SMS charges

As anticipated, the Council of EU Telecoms Ministers has endorsed the European Commission's plans to reduce consumer charges for sending text messages and downloading data via mobile phones while 'roaming' abroad in the EU. If the plans (known as the Roaming II Agreement) are passed by the European Parliament in spring they could become law next summer. The EC's proposal includes:

• capping the cost of sending a text message at 11 Euro cents (excluding VAT),
• automatically sending an text message explaining the charges when you travel abroad,
• offering a pre-set limit for roamed data charges from 2010,
• further reducing the cost of 'roaming' voice calls in 2009 and 2010,
• introducing per-second billing after 30 seconds for all calls made, and
• introducing per-second billing for all calls received.

[Press release 1; Press release 2]

EC decision on data roaming charges expected soon

The EC's plans for a cap on European data 'roaming' charges are expected to be agreed tomorrow, according to the International Herald Tribune. It says cross-border text message charges could to drop to 11 Euro cents (about 10.6p incl. VAT) from July 2009 - and there could be a similarly dramatic drop in data usage, too.

El Paso is the top town for texting in the US

Scarborough Research says El Paso in Texas is the top US city for text messaging, with 57% of mobile phone users sending texts - compared with a national average of 48%. Residents of Grand Rapids, Missouri, are least likely to send text messages. Apparently texters are more likely to be young and from Hispanic or African-American backgrounds, which the research company says helps to explain the geographic results. Texters also spend more on their mobile bills, play more sports, shop online and love technology more than other people. [PDF press release]

Mobile Messaging continues to grow

ABI Research says there's no sign of a slow-down in the growth of Mobile Messaging Services despite the current tough economic times. They reckon global revenue from mobile messaging services will grow from $151 billion this year to over $212 billion by 2013. [Press release]

UK now sending 6.5 billion texts per month

The Mobile Data Association has released its latest quarterly figures for UK mobile phones. In the third quarter of 2008 (July - September) it says usage for text and picture messages has continued increasing. Texting is up 38% year-on-year from Q3 2007, while MMS usage is up 20%. We're now sending an average 6.5 billion text messages sent per month - that's almost 217 million per day - and we're also sending an average of 1,495,525 multimedia messages every day. [Press release]

Vodafone and Visa reveal ad trial results

Vodafone and Visa Europe have revealed the results of a recent mobile advertising trial. The trial involved sending 150,000 text messages to Vodafone subscribers in eight countries during May. Customers were reminded to use the +44 UK country code when calling home and were offered a promotion to win tickets to the Beijing Olympics if they used their Visa credit card abroad. 86% of customers remembered the promotion and 74% read the message. Vodafone says the trial was a success, although only half of those receiving ads said they were interested in receiving further relevant and targeted messages. [Source: Mobile News]

Poppy campaign promotes text code

This year's Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal is publishing a text shortcode on its posters for the first time. People are being invited to support the appeal by texting POPPY to 80848. (The text costs £1.50; 90p goes to the British Legion). The text service itself isn't new; it's something we mentioned on podcast no.14 two years ago. [PDF press release]