From SMS to Multimedia Messaging

SMS

has been around for as long as GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications)

cellphones have been around, that is, since around 1991. SMS (Short Messaging

Service) is what allows you to send and receive text messages on your cellphone.

These messages could be sent from the Internet or from one cellphone to another.

So, you can use SMS for professional purposes, and have fun with it too. For

example, you can SMS someone in your office if you’re going to be delayed in

reaching office, you can wish someone Happy Birthday, or even have a

conversation, much like the way you chat on the Internet. Remember the ad when a

lovestruck guy proposes to the girl in question over her pager? You can do that

with SMS without having to call up the paging service and have them relay the

message.

Why SMS? For one, it’s an alternate way of communication.

For another, SMS is cheaper than voice, and for receiving a message, you don’t

pay anything. Also, SMS messages can be far pithier than voice conversation. It’s

also non-interfering, in the sense that you don’t have to interrupt your work

to receive a message–you can receive a message even while you’re talking

over the cellphone–and reply to it at your convenience. And finally, you could

easily multitask with SMS–do something else even while you are punching out

your SMS message, something you can’t easily do while on a voice call.

How SMS works

When someone sends a text message to your cellphone via the

Internet or from his cellphone, the message goes to the Short Message Service

Center, or SMSC, run by the cellphone service provider. The SMSC contacts an HLR

(Home Location Register)–a permanent database of information about subscribers

and service profiles–to find out your whereabouts. The HLR informs the SMSC of

where you are and how to route the message to you. The message is now forwarded

to the mobile switching center (MSC) closest to you. The MSC looks up

information in the VLR (Visitor Location Register), which is a database of

temporary information about subscribers who are in the area serviced by it. The

message is now transmitted to you via the Base Station System (BSS), in whose

area your cellphone is. You can choose to reply to it, save it, or delete it.

In case the HLR is unable to trace you, for example, if your

cellphone is switched off or not working, it tells the SMSC of the same. The

SMSC then stores your message, and requests the HLR to inform it when your

cellphone becomes traceable on the cellular network. When your cellphone is back

in action, the HLR informs the SMSC of where you are and the above process is

followed to deliver the message to you. However, the SMSC doesn’t store the

message forever. There’s a validity period that can be set, which determines

for how long the SMSC will store the message before deleting it.

When tomorrow comes

So, what’s in store for SMS in future? Lots, if happenings

on the wireless front are anything to go by.

For starters, and we’re talking about the immediate future,

you’ll use cellphones to access latest news and stock quotes from your

cellular network operator. This is already happening. SMS can also be used to

download your favorite ringtone from your cellular operator. Your network

operator might even be able to send e-mail or voice mail notifications on your

cellphone, so that you know when you have messages waiting to be answered. With

WAP around, shopping on your cellphone is a distinct possibility, and we’ll

tell that story elsewhere in this issue.

That’s

as far as text is concerned. But as the wireless world grows, both in number of

users and in terms of bandwidth, your cellphone will begin to be used as a

complete connected device–you’ll be able to use it as your PC, which not

only means that the Net will be connected to your cellphone inseparably, but

also that you’ll be able to connect it to peripherals like digital cameras,

and do everything that you do on your PC or laptop or handheld.

This also means that messaging could go way beyond text to

pictures, and even animations, movie clips, and multimedia. Picture messaging

has already found its way to some cellphones, where you can download pictures or

create your own, and send them across, along with a text message. With bandwidth

bottlenecks set to be overcome as broadband and GPRS make their presence felt,

the days of multimedia messaging are not far away.

So, you could send and receive photographs, video clips, and

audio via your cellphone, apart from text. It may become possible for you to

create multimedia content on your cellphone and then send it. For example, you

could download the latest MP3 and send it to your friends. You could click

photographs on your digital camera, connect that to your cellphone, and send

them. While making a presentation, you could receive your presentation on your

Bluetooth-enabled cellphone, point that to a Bluetooth-enabled projector and

present it, without carrying your PC around. The possibilities are immense in a

completely connected wireless world.

Another area of growth is the volume of messages itself. As

the number of cellphone user increases, and the focus shifts from voice to data,

instant messaging over the cellphone might even overtake voice calls.

After e-mail, chat is the killer application that’s drawing

people on to the Internet. Today, chat on the Net is going the multimedia way.

SMS is to the cellphone, what chat is to the Net, and given mankind’s urge to

communicate, there is no reason why SMS shouldn’t grow the way chat has grown.

SMS today is used mostly for person-to-person messaging, but in future, provided

the bandwidth is available, you could have chat communities in the wireless

world, and cellphone-based chat could become the bandwidth hog, with or without

multimedia.