Say your love via SMS on Valentine's Day

Say your love via SMS on Valentine's Day

Tantri Yuliandini, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

"Ooh, an SMS!" a colleague exclaimed one night, her face suddenly
brightening from the previous after-work gloom when she heard the
tell-tale beep of her mobile phone.

It was close to midnight and her phone had been silent for
hours, making her feel a little neglected.

How could a simple short message service (SMS) have such an
impact on a person's mood and emotions?

"Mobile phones have become so much a part of our everyday
lives. Our lives are increasingly revolving around them now,"
Siemens country manager for mobile phones Robby Darmasetiawan
explained in a statement.

Indeed, according to the newest Siemens Mobile Lifestyle
Survey, some 62 percent of Indonesians will automatically check
their phones for messages when an SMS tone goes off, and 79
percent of Indonesian mobile phone owners feel lost when they are
not carrying their phones.

The survey even indicated that 40 percent of mobile phone
users experience heightened heart rates every time they hear the
SMS tone!

The German mobile phone maker's Lifestyle Survey was conducted
by research firm Asia Market Intelligence, which interviewed
1,400 respondents from Indonesia, India, Malaysia, the
Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. It was completed in December
2002 and focused on men and women of between 15 and 29 years of
age.

Romance, too, thrived with the new technology. M. Ikhsan, 28,
from Depok, for example, said he sent more than 15 amorous SMSs a
month to his girlfriend.

"Some things are best expressed directly, while others are
better written as an SMS," he explained.

Ikhsan is not the only one. Some 41 percent of Indonesian
respondents said they sent "I love you" messages via SMS, ranking
the country the second most "romantically expressive" in the
region after the Philippines (58 percent), according to the
survey.

Even the SMS's limited space for expression -- only about 160
characters per message -- does not daunt the love-struck. On the
contrary, Dony, from Setia Budi in South Jakarta, said he liked
the spontaneity of SMS compared to other means of communication,
such as the traditional love letter or even e-mail.

"It better serves the occasional outbursts of love," he said.

Meanwhile, Terry, 26, from Kebon Sirih, Central Jakarta,
observed that romantic SMSs are used more for courting.

"Once you get the girl, the variety of SMSs gets boring. They
probably become limited to 'have you eaten yet' and 'be careful
on the road'," he said, while confessing to sending an average of
three SMSs a day to his girlfriend.

It is not unusual then, for SMS traffic to soar above average
on the most romantic day of the year, Valentine's Day.

Agung Bowo Laksono, PT Excelcomindo Pratama's general manager
for value added services (VAS) marketing and development, said
the company expected at least a 50 percent increase in SMS
traffic during Valentine's Day from its 1.8 million subscribers.

This would mean an additional 1.2 million to 1.5 million
messages to the average daily SMS traffic of 2.8 million
messages. Excelcomindo, holder of the proXL cellular operator
brand, recorded 900 million messages in SMS traffic last year,
the highest count of 95 million SMSs sent on New Year's Eve, the
company said.

The country's newest cellular operator, Indosat M3 (IM3) also
has high hopes for Valentine's Day, when they expect more than
1.8 million messages to be transmitted, said the company's
general manager for product development, I Made Harta Wijaya.

"During Imlek (Chinese New Year), we generated 1.8 million
messages. We expect more on Valentine's Day because it's a more
universal (celebration) than Imlek," he explained.

Commencing full operations early last year, to date IM3 has
540,000 subscribers who generate 1.2 million messages a day, he
said.

Riding on the craze, both operators have also designed special
Valentine's programs for their subscribers.

IM3 has prepared a Valentine Quiz, Valentine Chat, as well as
a poem contest with a trip for two to Malaysia for the most
romantic poem. The company is also offering special picture
message and romantic poem downloads.

Meanwhile, besides a unique Valentine ringtone and picture
downloads, proXL also offers its subscribers a chance to send PT
Pos Indonesia's electronic Valentine's Day letter (ratron) via
SMS.

"Subscribers simply send in details to the number and PT Pos
will send a ratron to the destined address," Agung said.

The company also has a Chat 'N Date program, and will send a
special romantic reading for subscribers upon request.

As for my colleague, the SMS she received that night turned
out not to be from the guy she had been eying for some time, but
a message on a planned demonstration outside the House of
Representatives compound.

Sighing dramatically, she -- me along with her -- returned to
our realm of romantic reveries.