Expecting more sophisticated mobile communications services

Expecting more sophisticated mobile communications services

JAKARTA (JP): The explosive growth in the use of cordless
communications tools has seen billions of personal messages sent
through mailboxes, answering machines, beepers and PCs across the
world.

In Indonesia, the number of cellular phone users has also
increased significantly. The demand for new technology has
allowed for the convergence of multiplying message types from
different devices such as beepers, cellular handsets and
palmtops.

Electric written messages on mobile communications devices are
one kind of personal message arriving daily in Indonesia. Most of
them originate from and are sent to cellular phones. But there is
no data on how many such messages are trafficked per day as many
cellular phone users in Indonesia use prepaid cards.

There are some 2,050,000 cellular phone subscribers in
Indonesia, up from 1.2 million the previous year. Most users use
GSM cellular technology which has the short messaging service
(SMS). Some one million additional users are expected to join up
this year.

However, some 60 percent of cell phone users use prepaid
cards, meaning they do not have access to SMS.

SMS has grown so popular that many people, especially those
new to the service, waste time operating their handsets to chat
in the written word.

In some nations, GSM users can get weather reports, brief
news, stock market quotes and traffic updates.

Unfortunately, GSM operators in Indonesia are less competitive
in this service and are reluctant to modify their prepaid cards
with SMS.

The number of SMS users would dramatically increase if the
operators adjusted their technology to allow prepaid card
subscribers access to SMS.

There has been attempts to converge several tools to
facilitate SMS transmission. Certain Internet service operators
and GSM providers have joined forces to allow users to send
messages via PCs to handsets, but this service has not proved too
popular.

This could be due to the low number of PC users in Indonesia.
Meanwhile, the number of cellular phone users keeps surging. This
is understandable because, as in most Asian nations, the cellular
phone has surpassed the personal computer as a viable platform
for digital content sales to consumers.

Some Indonesians enjoy simple SMS trafficking while the others
are still wondering what SMS is even they own the latest model
cell phone made by a leading manufacturer. In the meantime, other
people around the globe have begun to enjoy the newest, unique
services allowing users to initiate and return voice calls and
send and receive faxes, e-mail and other kinds of messages in
various locations on various devices based on the Internet's
telephony potential communications services. Christianto