Canadians embrace instant messages

Shifter

November 25, 2003

CUB L8R - if you understood this, you are one of the many Canadians who contribute to the millions of monthly text messages back and forth between mobile phones.

Translated, it means ’call you back later,’ and it’s just one of hundreds of short forms in the informal text message library of commonly used words and phrases.

Microcell Solutions Inc’s wireless carrier, Fido, was the first to offer text messaging to its customers back in 1996. But it has only been in the last 18 months that the service has been met with widespread interest across the country - unlike in Europe and Asia where mobile phone users have embraced the technology for some time.

"European wireless cellular companies all use the same cellular technology - something called GSM - whereas in North America we use GSM and CDMA," explains Andy Walker, a California-based author and technology expert.

"It was harder [in North America] to implement because of the mixed cellular technology". Messaging network In April 2002, Canada’s four major wireless carriers - Bell Mobility, Fido, Rogers AT&T Wireless and TELUS Mobility - created an inter-carrier messaging network which allowed wireless-phone users to send and receive text messages to and from other wireless-phone customers. With a wider communicating potential, Canadians endorsed text messaging, sending out an astounding average of 20 million mobile-to-mobile text messages per month, shortly after the inception of inter-carrier messaging.

In September, this figure jumped to 32 million messages sent, representing a tripling in monthly usage since the Canadian inter-carrier text messaging network was established.

"The industry is extremely excited about how Canadians are increasingly adding text messaging to their choices for instant and inexpensive ways to communicate," says Peter Barnes, president and CEO of the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA).

Earlier this year, the introduction of cross-border inter-carrier text messaging services gave wireless-phone customers an even wider network, allowing them to send messages using major U.S. national wireless-service providers.

"The wireless carriers saw European and Asian companies making a lot of money on messaging and the North American carriers said in essence: ’we want a piece of that pie,’ " says Walker, who also runs the popular Website SMSGlossary.com.

"So, they invested in connecting their messaging systems and spent the time and money educating the users about how exciting and useful SMS is."

Those who watched the television show American Idol saw text messaging’s potential to attract and sustain viewers through simple-to-use interaction.

And when Canadian Idol aired in the summer, wireless subscribers across Canada were given the chance to vote for their favourite CDN IDL (Canadian Idol) thanks to newly created commercial Common Short Codes - five- and six-digit numbers to which a text message can be sent. This allows mobile-phone users, regardless of their wireless service provider, to participate in some form of automated application.

"In addition to this one million milestone for person-to-person text messages, we are seeing a rapid deployment of text-messaging programs using common short codes, such as TV and radio voting, contests and other interactive campaigns," adds Barnes.

Other text-messaging multimedia-related ventures have taken place across the country, as well.

In March, MuchMusic embarked on a national text-messaging campaign to coincide with the launch of the DVD teen thriller, Swimfan. Rogers AT&T customers were given the chance to receive daily hits of movie trivia on their wireless phones and participate via text messaging for a chance to win daily prize packs.

Around the same time, the wireless carrier partnered with Motorola to host a wireless text-messaging entertainment-trivia contest. The winner received $6,000 and the contest also raised money for Child Find.

And Fido joined forces with AOL to allow its subscribers to use AOL’s Instant Messenger and ICQ services.

Other carriers offer the same, or similar, service.

"I see SMS (text messaging) becoming ubiquitous," notes Walker.

"In Europe, Mars Inc., did a campaign where they put SMS codes on candy bars, as part of a promotion that was enormously successful. So you’ll see the ad world take interest in text messaging." Likely the most exciting change that is making its way to the text messaging arena is Multimedia Messaging Service," or MMS, he adds.

"That is the future. Camera phones are really hot this fall and into next year, and that changes everything," explains Walker.

"One thing to note is that MMS and SMS are technically different technologies, but the social behaviour is the same - communication. I think there’s a real appeal in snapping a picture of a new baby with your camera phone and sending it to the grandparents. Or snapping postcards for the family when you’re on a business trip."

Unlike SMS, where messages must be 160 characters or less, MMS has virtually no limit on the size or sophistication of the message content.

Content for MMS messages can be downloaded from a Website, recorded by the person sending the message or transferred from cameras and other devices to the mobile device over a Bluetooth wireless connection.

Sony Ericsson was the first to launch MMS-capable mobile phones. In Europe, multimedia messaging has been available for about two years. It was launched last year in the U.S.

Currently, Rogers AT&T is running a promotion on picture messaging. Using a picture messaging-enabled phone, users can capture and share instant pictures and email them to anyone in the world.

Fido offers a similar service. TELUS Mobility takes it one step-further, by also permitting users to send pictures to other TELUS customers’ picture-capturing phones. True direct handset-to-handset MMS transmission isn’t widely available yet, but is expected to be launched soon by some wireless carriers.

With SMS the average cost of receiving or sending a message is between 10 and 15 cents, though each carrier offers various text-messaging packages.

The relatively low cost of communicating was first popularized by teens, who continue to use it for scheduling and socializing, but the interest is now branching out elsewhere.

In the business sector, SMS’s provides a non-disruptive method of contacting or passing along information to a co-worker during a meeting - without a phone ringing.

"And as the younger people use it, the older people get dragged into communicating with them, much in the same way that e-mail was adopted by college kids. Now, Mom and Dad are using it to stay in touch with their kids."

Total wireless subscribers in Canada now numbers almost 13 million - approximately 43 per cent of the population. By 2005, more than half of all Canadians will be mobile-phone customers.

In addition, those without a wireless phone can still send text messages throughout the world using widely available Websites.

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