E-mail notification alert with SMS provides convenience

By Lim Tri Santosa

BANDUNG (JP): Wow, I have received a lot of e-mails from JP readers, either giving compliments or asking for more tips or for a detailed procedure in Indonesian. Of course, I am happy, but please understand that not all your e-mails can be replied to because I do not have enough time to write replies to each person. I would need a dedicated secretary to do all that.

Folks, I want to thank you for your interest in my SMS article. This is the sequel to my previous article; I would like to share my experience dealing with email alerts through SMS GSM cell phones.

That means you will be notified through SMS every time there is a new message in your original email account. This time, both Satelindo and Telkomsel subscribers, either prepaid or to be billed later, can take advantage of this free service. Sorry, I did not have a chance to practice with Excelcomindo GSM cards.

There is no doubting the success of the market of SMS. In Europe alone, the market has reached over three billion SMS per month (source: www.gsmworld.com/gsmdata) despite little proactive marketing by network operators and phone manufacturers.

Because SMS is proactively delivered to mobile phones that are typically kept in the user's pocket and can be stored for later reference, SMS is considered more convenient than e-mail or data to distribute among mobile people.

The most common SMS is for notifying mobile phone users that they have new voice or fax mail messages waiting. Therefore, this is the starting point for most mobile network operators and the first, but hopefully not the last, time that mobile phone users use SMS.

Upon receiving a new e-mail in their mailbox, most Internet e- mail users do not get notified of this fact. They have to dial in speculatively and periodically to check their mailbox contents. However, by linking your Internet e-mail with SMS, users can be notified whenever a new e-mail is received. The Internet e-mail alert is provided in the form of a SMS that typically details the sender and subject field. Because of the high increasing usage of Internet e-mail to communicate globally, and the benefit from using SMS to notify mobile users about important new e-mail messages, this is likely to be a fast growing and popular application for SMS.

Quios

Internet and GSM are two magic words for our time, and also two different worlds. The newly started company called Quios (www.quios.com) now wants to link these two worlds through SMS. Quios wants to create the largest mobile community in the world by making SMS available to everyone at no extra charge by way of its website. The mission of the company: to create the largest mobile community in the world by means of wireless and Internet technologies toward connecting people anytime and anywhere (hmm, sounds like Coca-Cola).

What does Quios (pronounced Kee-os) actually stand for? The name is derived from the American word "quiosque", a meeting place for people who want to find or exchange information. In the meantime, Quios provides its SMS services to over 150 carriers, mostly GSM, in 75 countries, and thank God, Indonesia is included.

The website offers various services. We can send free SMS and compose a message in advance for an important birthday, setting the appropriate day, including the hour and minute that it will be sent to a specific GSM cell phone number. It is like an SMS- alarm reminder! You do not need an expensive cell phone that has the capability to record your appointment or important event.

When you first sign up with Quios, you create your own unique ID (user name) and password, which you use to log onto the Quios site. Record your information exactly as you entered it during registration as it is case sensitive. On the sign-up page, select your country: Indonesia +62 from the drop-down list.

Then select your appropriate mobile carrier (Satelindo or Telkomsel), and enter your area code or prefix carrier (816 or 811, 812), followed by your cell phone number. Be careful not to enter the phone number incorrectly.

After that, the security code is generated from the information that you entered when you first signed up. It is sent to your mobile phone display by way of SMS. You use this code to enable your account with Quios. If for some reason you did not receive a security code, you can have it resent to your mobile phone again.

Email Alerts

OK folks, I do not want to discuss about the SMS-alarm reminder that can be preset as you can try that yourselves. A free QUIOS service called Quios Mobile E-mail (Q-Mail) is a real surprise. Unbelievable! A person can find out when there is an urgent or important e-mail in their original e-mail account right on the cell phone display (sender name and the subject field). I think businesspeople will find Q-Mail handy as it informs the user of new e-mail messages.

Q-Mail is a service that allows you to receive an alert on your mobile phone when an e-mail is sent to you. It accomplishes this with the help of an email forwarding service on the Quios.com website. When you register, you automatically receive an e-mail forwarding account with your Quios ID. So for example, if your Quios ID is John, your email forwarding address is john@quios.com.

On the Quios website where you set up your alerts, there is a section for Q-Mail. Enter your home or office e-mail account to have e-mail forwarded from your Quios account. Do not forget to click on the "on" position of the check box for Q-Mail Notification. When someone sends an e-mail to your Quios account (e.g., john@quios.com), an alert will be sent to your mobile phone to let you know that an e-mail has arrived.

The alert only displays the sender and subject. If the subject is too long for one SMS message, then you will receive more SMS. The body of the text is too large to send to your mobile display. However, you can read the full text by checking your home or office e-mail since it was forwarded to the e-mail address you specified during the Q-Mail set-up.

Within a few years, there will be a billion GSM users worldwide. It is clear that Quios offers many services, which normally would only be possible with WAP, but you can take advantage of it without any cost.

There is one thing that you should know. Anybody can use the service, so unfortunately when it goes into full swing (busy traffic), only those with mobile phones will be granted the service first. But it is worth trying. You are sure to enjoy it.

The writer's new email address is abbaml@rad.net.id.