On Thursday, June 20, 2002, at 05:34 , Hans de Graaff wrote:
> While I agree with the comment about the customization process, i-mode
> is available on an operational level in Taiwan and Europe on
> GSM/GPRS. I don't know subscriber numbers for Taiwan, but in Europe
> 50.000 people are using i-mode and that number is growing steadily.
Very recently yes. However, the fact that it had to be
customised/adapted will have certainly slowed down the process. On the
other hand, the recent adaption for GSM is proof that GSM it is *not* an
impediment for new technologies.
Remember, the argument I was trying to refute was that GSM would have
been such a constraint on DoCoMo, that they would not have come up with
it in the first place, that they could have only done it due to the fact
that they had their own proprietary system (PDC).
>> Even features that may seem inferior to you like SMS can from a
>> different perspective have a superior usefulness. For example, the
>> fact that SMS has QoS, while email has not. When you send someone an
>> SMS you will get a notification telling you if the message has been
>> received or if it has failed. In business this can be paramount and
>> for many business GSM users it is If someone is in meetings all day
>> and you can't seem to get hold of them, you can send them an SMS and
>> wait. The moment they get out of their meeting and switch their
>> phone back on, they will receive the SMS and you get a confirmation,
>> so you know that now is the window you have been trying to find all
>> day - now is the time to call the other party.
>
> This is not always true. SMS messages get lost or not delivered as
> well. The QoS may be better than with i-mode mail but there are no
> real guarantees as far as I can tell.
Real guarantees ? Like what ?
Sure, if you blow up the building in which the SMSC sits and you have no
backup, of course then there would be no guarantees. And, sure, the
delivering SMSC could be operated or implemented in a way that it is
*broken* and then there would be no guarantees either.
> I've also never received
> confirmation of SMS messages being sent.
You can enable this on your handset. If you ask for a notification, then
you will get:
- a "pending" notification message, when the SMSC has queued your
outgoing SMS;
- a "delivery" confirmation message, when your outgoing SMS is
delivered; or
- a "failed" notification message, when your outgoing SMS could not be
delivered
The SMSC will try to deliver any message (including notification
messages) for 72 hours. So, if your phone is switched off for long
enough, then you will not get an SMS sent to you and the SMSC will
generate a "failed" notification to the sender, unless the sender has
disabled the receipt of notification messages.
> Perhaps this is a network
> configuration setting, but as a user I would feel quite uncomfortable
> knowing that someone could see when I receive my messages.
Well, that is how it works. Not unlike using voice. If you pick up a
call, then the caller will know that you picked up. If you do not pick
up, then the caller will know you didn't.
The rationale behind this is that the sender will be charged for sending
the message. The operator has a contract with the user by which a
service (the delivery of a message) is provided in return for payment
(the charge). If the operator does not deliver the service but charges
nevertheless, then they are in breach of contract. The sender has a
right to know if he received the service that they have been charged
for. The operator is obliged to provide a receipt. This could be
implemented in the form of an itemised bill, but the designers of GSM
-in this case- have been wise enough to foresee that there may be so
many SMS one day that it would simply be unfeasible to itemise them. It
is far more economical to provide an electronic receipt.
As of January 2002 there were about 24 billion SMS per month. 360
billion SMS are forecasted for the year.
http://www.gsmworld.com/news/statistics/index.shtml
Assuming 50 lines on an itemised monthly bill, if all those senders
asked for an itemised bill with all SMS listed, then there would be a
total of 480 million pages every month.
Fortunately, a significant number of subscribers are on prepaid or
otherwise do not ask for itemisation, but they can ask for an electronic
receipt for SMS they sent.
regards
benjamin
Received on Thu Jun 20 06:17:12 2002