BYTE MARKS
Phone messaging may catch on yet

By Burt Lum

More than 10 years ago, a standard for delivering short messages over the digital cellular network was introduced, called Short Message Service or SMS. It started in Europe.

Its introduction into the U.S. market came shortly thereafter, growing rather slowly and for the most part unappreciated.

In comparison, Japan's use of SMS is phenomenal, and the Japanese are recognized worldwide as this technology's early adopters. Just watch the young office workers riding to and fro on the Shinkansen trains.

To learn more about SMS, there's a good tutorial at www.iec.org/online/tutorials/wire_sms.

Back on home turf, I have not seen that sort of SMS action. But every so often I do get a message sent to me on my cell phone that causes me to pause and contemplate this service.

I think it's got potential. Here's why: While using your phone on a voice call, an SMS message can arrive without interrupting your conversation. You can send messages to other cell phones from anywhere on the Internet, and use your phone as a pager. You can also subscribe to message services that give you the latest stock reports or sports scores.

For Verizon Wireless phone users, the best place to start messaging is from the Web site, www.vtext.com. From there, you can send someone a message, assuming they also have Verizon Wireless service and subscribe to SMS service. You will find the major carriers, such as Sprint PCS, AT&T Wireless and Nextel, all have their own version of this service.

It gets more interesting at www.upoc.com. The Upoc Web site functions as a portal for SMS. Any users, regardless of the wireless service they subscribe to, can become a member. Once a member, from the Upoc site you can add them to your list and form groups. Sending messages to one person or a group of people becomes extremely easy. The Upoc site also allows you to subscribe to channels, such as NASA or a U.S. Open Tennis channel.

The list goes on, and the possibilities are limitless. ;-)

Burt Lum is one click away at burt@brouhaha.net.