Ricky (from BlykWatch) here, I was going through my junk mail and picked this up. Free SMS Alerts when you are more likely to burn from the sun. It is a campaign from Teenage Cancer Trust and you can see full details about the campaign here.

Here at SMS Text News we are a big fan of things like this and it is great they are using SMS technology to promote such an important issue. The other thing is the lovely Leona Lewis is the Ambassador for the campaign and we all know how much some of the SMS Text News contributors (not naming any names) have a great admiration for her!

Sign Up was really simple, which can be seem from the screen shot below, and when signed up you are entered into a prize draw to win some prizes from the campaigns other partner Superdrug.

Fantastic Service I think, now only if there was a similar service for the millions of hay fever sufferers.

An interesting survey has just been published thanks to ACCESS Systems Americas, Inc. It found that 73% of US consumers buying a new handset said that text messaging was an important feature.

The research was conducted by independent research firm Amplitude Research and other features that scored highly were having a camera (67%), having email capabilities (63%) and accessing the Internet (61%); while only 0.5% of respondents said that battery life was important - not like our own James Whately during Glastonbury.

For the geeks amongst us, it is interesting to read that 39% of respondents have added new applications, while 21% have added six or more new applications.

But it wasn’t all geeks they talked to. They also surveyed some people just like my mum - as 4.83% said that the only reason they have a cell phone is in case of emergency!

You can read more on FierceWireless here.

Michael of Openmind Networks feels very strongly about the issue of bullying by text. Now while the medium of text does, one would imagine, give the option for you to simply ignore or delete offending text messages, it’s just not that simple. The psychological effect can, I imagine, be quite terrifying. Michael would like to understand the industry’s viewpoint of the issue so, if time permits, please do take his quick survey below.

Over to Michael:

- - - - -

Bullying for many victims is a terrifying ordeal and many children who are being bullied are afraid to speak out. They are scared of reprisals if they tell someone and reports have shown that as young people grow older, they are less likely to tell someone. They become more and more isolated, experience depression and, in extreme cases, can harm themselves or attempt suicide. Bullying by SMS is a virulent form of bullying and is now an ever present reality.

Many of you reading this will be parents or guardians of teens or soon to be teens and the threat of bullying by SMS is very real. What can we do as individual subscribers or as mobile operators to counteract the threat of bullying by SMS? The following short SMS survey conducted by Openmind Networks will provide some valuable feedback as to the demand for a solution to bullying by SMS.

Instructions:

Please SMS results to +27 79 685 9486

SMS charged at standard rates.

Please send your SMS message in the following format:
Survey Code(space)Answers

‘Sur’ is the code, insert it before the answers.

For example:
Sur aceg

1. Would you agree that bullying by SMS is a reality?
a: Yes
b: no

2. Are you aware that there is a product (Protect from Openmind Networks) that will safeguard mobile subscribers from bullying by SMS?
c: Yes
d: No

3. Should mobile operators assist in protecting their subscribers from bullying by SMS?
(Select one or more answers)
e: Yes
f: No

4. Would you pay for a service that protects your children (even if you do not have any) from bullying by SMS?
g: Yes
h: No

The results of the survey will be posted on both Openmind Networks’ website and the SMS Text News website.

Please note: Your mobile number will never be used for any further communication and will not be divulged to any third parties. This is a one-off survey.

- - - - -

Thanks for that, Michael!

If you’re planning to go out for the night in any of the major US cities then you might want to try out buzz’d. By texting your zipcode to buzz’d’s shortcode you can be told the answer to the question on everybody’s lips - “What’s going on around me right now?”

There are now 1.2 million venues in the database with 10% of those being added by users themselves. The top cities being New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami and London in the UK and not surprisingly the most popular days for usage are Friday, followed by Saturday and then Thursday.

If you’re going out this weekend why don’t you give it a try and let us know how you get on.

It looks like saucy text messages could land the Scottish in a whole lot of trouble. According to Out-law.com, the country’s new Sexual Offences Bill could see those convicted of sending an “unsolicited text message to someone else which a court finds was designed to give the sender sexual gratification or to humiliate, distress or alarm the receiver” landed with up to 10 years in jail.

The bill will introduce a new offence called communicating indecently, which will cover such unsolicited communications as well as others such as getting someone to look at an image of real or imaginary people having sex.

Out-law.com reckons the law could potentially cover work place flirting that goes too far and it will be up to judges to determine if flirty emails or text messages could come under the ‘communicating indecently’ banner. I expect there will be a lot of bosses revising their workplace communications policies right now.

If your boss pays your mobile phone bill, does he have a right to read your text messages? According to an LA court, the answer is no - not without the employee’s consent.

The decision comes as part of a case, reported by the LA Times that saw a policeman take his employer to court after police department staff read his text messages.

After the policeman exceeded the monthly text allowance paid for by his employer, the police department asked its service provider to turn over records of the contents of his messages.

Wrong move, said the judge, who decided the service provider had breached federal Stored Communications Act, and that the text messages were covered by the 4th amendment. In short, the employer didn’t have a right to look at the texts without the employee’s say so, or without a policy in place warning staff their messages were being monitored.

Does anyone know what laws apply here in the UK?

We’re sure to see numerous Olympic related text initiatives coming forward in the next couple months, but here’s one that’s just been announced by 4INFO.

SAN MATEO, CA. - (June 10, 2008) — 4INFO, Inc., the leader in SMS publishing and advertising services, announced today that it has developed a comprehensive mobile alerts program to help fans stay abreast of the 2008 Olympic Games in China this summer. Beginning today, anyone with a cell phone can sign up over the phone or online at www.4info.net/olympics to receive alerts on their favorite countries, sports or medal counts. With Beijing 12 hours ahead of the east coast, fans can still stay up to speed on their favorite athletes and events without staying up late or relying on video recordings. 4INFO’s mobile alerts are free and work on any cell phone, offering consumers the flexibility and convenience of getting the key updates they’re eager to hear while they are on the move.

Olympic sports alerts kick off on August 6th, with several soccer matches. The Olympic Games mobile alerts service lasts 18 days, ending with closing ceremonies on August 24th. At any time during the games, users can also conduct a mobile search to get the latest medal updates by sport by texting any SPORT NAME or COUNTRY NAME to 44636 (4info on a phone keypad). This service is free, although text messaging fees from carriers may apply.

2008 Olympic Mobile Alert Service Options Include:

Medal alerts by country

• User receives a daily medal summary for the country of their choice; One message per day, for 18 days

Medal alerts by event

• All 33 sports supported; user receives a daily medal summary by sport/event

Daily medal table

• Daily top 10 summary of countries with the most medals

Olympic news alerts

• User will receive up to three headline daily offering top Olympic news

Search Services Include:

Medal table

• User can text the word: MEDAL to get a daily top 10 summary

We’re about to distribute this release shortly…

SMS Text News launches consultancy practice
Blog moves into analyst territory

June 10, London. SMS Text News, the world’s most influential blog on the mobile industry, is proud to announce it has launched a consultancy and research arm of its business in a bid to help more companies succeed.

The new section of the site, “Push 1 for Help”, launches today with the support of the Tolléjo Media Group - the company behind big-hitting blogs SMS Text News, Greenbang.com and BladeWatch.

Ewan MacLeod, chief blogger and serial entrepreneur, is to lead the venture. He made the decision to introduce the service after more than 20 large companies approached him for advice on mobile subjects, business and blogging.

Ewan said: “We’re launching this service in reaction to the demand from the industry for qualified, non-nonsense perspective and opinion — the sort of thing you don’t necessarily get from analysts. We’re highly connected to the marketplace and we’re in a unique position at SMS Text News to deliver brilliant insightful perspective.”

The move comes as the traditional technology analyst market struggles to find new ways to make revenue and differentiate their offerings. Ewan continued: “We’re taking a new approach to helping companies. Everyone in this office lives mobile and knows it inside out. We started blogging about mobile because we love it. Not many analysts can equal that passion and therefore will only deliver information and help to a certain level.”

Push 1 for Help debuts at the SMS Text News Unlimited Drinks night on June 10th.

- - -

If you’d like a bit of help — if you’d like a report, some perspective or a confidential viewpoint, talk to me. The Push 1 for Help overview page is here.

For the regular readers of this column you will know the format is generally I discuss anything I want to and then move on to explain and describe my interactions with the adverts BLYK send me. However this week I will not be able to cover the adverts for the last 14 days, this is due to more problems on BLYK and me going on a short holiday.

Firstly let’s look at the current multiple SMS problem; we are on 29 days and counting….. There is nothing I can further add about this problem that has not been covered by previous editions. All I ask anyone from BLYK reading this column, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE sort this issue out ASAP!!!!

Now let’s move onto some NEW problems. Until Friday 30th May, I had no problems receiving BLYK MMS messages and then all of the sudden I received an error message Communication Error, this occurred when the MMS tried to be downloaded. I thought to myself ok no problem there must be an issue with my settings, no problem I did a full system reset and tried to get the settings resent to my phone. As part of receiving the settings BLYK also send you a welcome MMS, and yet again I had the same problem. So I went online sent customer care an email and on the forum, and was informed that there was intermittent problems with Sony Ericsson phones and downloading MMS message. Great another problem to the current list those BLYK members have to endure.

Since I was flying out to Prague and Vienna the next day, I decided to put my account into pause. This is where you stop receiving brand messages, and you can’t use your free balance and simply turns your account in essence into a normal pay as you go orange sim, with once exception with crap roaming. Currently Blyk users can only use their phone in Spain, and brand messages are not sent when abroad and you cannot use your free balance. Hold on exciting news, BLYK have added more countries to their list France, Italy, USA, Belgium, Switzerland, Portugal and the best bit you must have credit on your phone. Can you sense the sarcasm? I know Blyk is small and new but surely they can use Orange’s roaming partners? I understand the bit about no brand messages and no free balance, but that your account must have credit is ridiculous and surely against Blyk’s free model. As a result I could not take my phone abroad and receive SMS messages from my friends. Luckily BLYK is not my main line, therefore this did affect me directly however for those who use BLYK as their only number, surely this will affect them.

Since returning back to the UK on Friday, I again tried to reset up BLYK on my phone to no avail, in fact BLYK’s system tried to send me settings over and over again. I am sure this is linked to the multiple text problems, mentioned at the start of this post. Still on my k550i, I cannot set up BLYK; however I now have it working on a spare k750i and my account is unpaused and receiving MMS messages again. If I was an advertiser with BLYK I would be worried, as it seems there is an issue with some Sony Ericsson phone and the ability to receive MMS brand messages.

Finally BLYK has another SMS issue on it’s hands, it seems on the last few days that a problem has manifested itself that messages are coming out of people’s free balance and are not be receiving at all and with no delivery reports no one knows what has got through at all.

Oh dear it’s not good news really for BLYK especially as SMS is the main communication method for Blyk’s target audience and it is very worrying that things are taking such a long time to get fixed. I thought I would publish some comments that have appeared on the Blyk forum of how some of the members are feeling about the current problems.

I have been “testing” Blyk since January…thankfully its not my main number! I never felt the service was reliable enough to make Blyk my main number. Im just growing weary of the failed texts..pity, the Blyk idea is a good one, let down by poor technology.

I know the service is free, and I did consider to change over but at the moment I’m testing and as far as I can tell its not the best.

I think ive been patient…for 6 months! When the service works its great…but it just isnt reliable! Im sick of random texts never being delivered..and I have no way to know which ones make it and which ones dont!! Arghh!!. Please, please just tell me…are delivery reports EVER going to happen…and you cant say “youre looking into it!”. If they are unlikly to ever be part of the Blyk service id rather know now and maybe I can move on.

In direct response to the above quotes here is a response from member care

I am sorry that you are angry about this,
With delivery reports, they will not work at the moment and it is something we are looking into. I know that’s not what you wanted to hear but its what’s happening. For the moment though they will not work and probably wont for some time. I’m not saying that they will never be on Blyk but for the moment they wont.
Our tech team are working extremely hard at the moment to fix any issues and personally i am impressed at how hard they are working.
Remember this is the Only service in the UK that gives you free texts and calls with no contract and that Blyk has only been running since September. Now as our Member numbers increase errors that were not around before are now showing. As with anything, new trial and error are a big part of things.
All i can ask is that you show some more of that amazing patients again and wait until these errors are sorted.

I have to agree the model works; it just needs to be backed up by reliable network service, something we just are not getting at the moment.
As you can see things are happening with BLYK very quickly and as a result this column will become weekly, so I can keep you updated with what’s going on with BLYK!

—

Thanks Ricky! Remember Blykwatch is going to be published weekly, so stay tuned!

If you work in the messaging and aggregator space, you might want to have a say in this….

CTIA -The Wireless Association® announced today a Request For Information (RFI) on behalf of its Enhanced Messaging Action Team (EM Team). The RFI is being sent to a wide range of companies with an interest in the enhanced messaging space.

CTIA’s EM Team, comprised of industry representatives, is currently in the process of evaluating solutions to implement EM on wireless phones in the United States. The purpose of this RFI is to understand and evaluate capabilities and interests in EM Product Feature—Group Messaging (GM).

The EM Team is looking for high level solutions and detailed call flow options surrounding the Product and the GM Feature, and is interested in discussion surrounding solution options, feature functionality, customer experience and technical feasibility.

Any company interested in receiving the RFI should contact Kate Kingberger, Director of Wireless Internet Development for CTIA, at kkingberger at ctia.org or 202-736-3892 for more information. Participating companies will be required to respond by June 26, 2008.

Just got this in, NearU has teamed up with LotteryUSA to implement a new service that sends you the winning lottery numbers by text message.

PASADENA, Calif., June 9 /PRNewswire/ — NearU Search (http://www.nearusearch.com/) has inked a deal with Ann Arbor, MI based lottery results provider LotteryUSA (http://www.lotteryusa.com/) to offer the most recent draw information to members via text message. The LottoWatch premium subscription will be available in June across all 50 states.

“This is the promise of mobile convenience. The Internet is great when you have time. But time is so scarce. People are looking for ways to make information come to them. That’s where we come in.” said Heather Mlodinow, NearU Search CEO. LotteryUSA users will be able to sign up for winning number text alerts on the LotteryUSA site.

“LotteryUSA has always been about helping users access the latest lottery results with ease. NearU Search is all about providing convenient, fast, wireless access to a variety of data, making them a perfect partner for bringing LotteryUSA to the Mobile market. We are excited that NearU Search has been able to deliver this solution so quickly.” said LotteryUSA’s Fred Weiss.

Ms. Mlodinow said, “LotteryUSA subscribers will be getting winning number alerts for each lottery draw. Now we’ll be able to spot a winner — look for the gal dancing in the street waving her mobile in one hand and her lottery ticket in the other!”

I like it! I would love to find out instantly if I’m a millionaire, it beats waiting for the 11 o’clock news for the “unofficial” numbers or the newspaper the next morning.

Got this enquiry in from a reader:

Hi, I am interested in launching a SMS text competition in the USA can you perhaps suggest one or two links where I can find out more about the regulations in the USA for text competitions and possibly info on the feasibility of such a venture.

Any suggestions on where I should send him?

Our BlykWatch column by Ricky Chotai is coming shortly. He’s got so much stuff moving with Blyk at the moment that, short term, we’re swapping to publishing weekly.

The biggest issue is the multiple texts problem — texts are being duplicated multiple times — and it’s driving him and the other users nuts. I did promise Ricky that we’d stick a day counter on the site if the problems weren’t fixed after 21 days.

Well it seems that it’s, what, 28 days now? Something like that. We’ll see what he’s got to report shortly and go from there.

The US Department of Homeland Security has taken another step towards a new SMS emergency alert system that will warn citizens of domestic disasters from earthquakes to terror attacks.

The Department has announced it’s picked the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to oversee the new system of emergency alerts and act as the aggregator for the scheme, in charge of verifying to operators that any alerts do really come from the government and can be delivered to their subscribers across the country.

Oddly, while FEMA notes while that the gateway system the emergency alerts will use hasn’t been designed or engineered yet, it says it has the “necessary authorities and technical solutions to assume the responsibility as the federal cellular Alert Aggregator”. After having confirmed they have the necessary technical skills, FEMA will now actually start looking at the technical issues surrounding the system, like how to guarantee the government’s text messages can jump the queue ahead of non-emergency traffic. I don’t know about you, but picking the technology first and then getting someone to oversee it seems a bit more of a sensible option.

In my never ending quest of being annoyed with a large portion of everything Fido does, I present exhibit A:

U.S. TEXT MESSAGING RATE CHANGE

Please note that effective July 15, 2008, the rate for sending a text message from Canada to the United States is changing to $0.25 (from $0.15). This change also applies to Text messaging options and certain Value packs, as text messages sent to the United States will no longer be included in the options. Pricing does not include applicable taxes.

Ugh. That means International is probably going up to.

Figures.

SMS Text News sponsor Clickatell have partnered with S1 Corporation to provide a new on-demand text banking service. Exciting stuff!

S1 Corporation a leading global provider of customer interaction software solutions for financial and payment services, and Clickatell, a leading global mobile messaging provider, today announced a partnership to provide on-demand text-based mobile services through the S1 Enterprise and Postilion Internet Banking solutions.

S1 Enterprise and Postilion customers across the globe will be able to take advantage of the on-demand capabilities of SMS banking and payments services, including account balance inquiries, funds transfers, account alerts and person-to-person (P2P) payments. The two-way SMS service enables users to proactively manage their finances and monitor potential fraud via their mobile phones. Clickatell’s global messaging gateway delivers transactions and alerts to and from cell phones over 700 networks in more than 200 countries.

Excellent!

As reader Mark commented when he forwarded me this link, ‘What took them so long?’

I’m pleased to see that, as per The Register’s report, CrimeStoppers has launched an anonymous text service for crime tips. Here’s hoping this will be of value. I think people are far more likely to give a tip by text message rather than phone up. Even though CrimeStoppers guarantees anonymity, ’speaking’ to someone is still quite a big ask. Texting a tip from a pay as you go sim card is, I reckon, a lot simpler and easier.

CrimeStoppers UK, the anonymous snitching service, has begun a trial allowing suspicious members of the public to text in their crime tips. The intention is to get kids to report knife-carrying compatriots.
The trial will launch at three schools in Tower Hamlets, with a view to a rollout across London and the rest of the country pretty quickly.

The Israeli Government is getting serious about text spam (reports Cellular News). That’s a pretty serious statement! Have a read:

Israel’s Parliament, the Knesset has approved a bill banning the sending of unsolicited SMSs to mobile phones with fines of up to NIS200,000 (US$61,000) per infraction. The bill also forbids unsolicited phone calls of a commercial nature - as well as email spam

I’ve had enough of hearing absolutely nothing from Canada in a mobile context.

The only memorable thing I can tell you about is RIM. And Rogers executives who knew nothing about mobile (this was, admittedly, a few years ago, I trust the situation has changed). And the enterprising chaps at Bell who introduced unlimited data recently (see our HTC Touch/Bell Unlimited Data experience).

Not good enough, eh? No! I know there’s a lot of good stuff happening in the country. We’ve had a lot of email in from readers suggesting companies to shine the SMS Text News light upon. Very encouraging.

As a result, our very own Krystal (an Ontario native) has started work on Focus on Canada. I want to start by looking at the country’s mobile aggregators. First up you can look forward to an array of profiles and then some interviews with leading executives making things happen in the industry. We’ll begin next week. Standby!

If you have some recommendations for who we should speak to, do let me know (ewan@smstextnews.com).

After all the Microsoft farrago, Yahoo is now getting back to the business of trying to take on Google in advertising. Its latest move is signing a trial partnership with SMS advertising company 4INFO, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Under the trial, the WSJ says, 4INFO will give Yahoo the tech it needs to publish content like news and horoscopes over SMS with a small ad included, with either Yahoo or 4INFO selling the ad space.

With operators now looking at embedding ads into games and trading them in return for mobile TV clips, it’s interesting to see search companies turning to the old school likes of SMS. While it’s not as flash as newer advertising types, it does have one major advantage - being opt-in - not to mention better click rates.

CBS carries this report of a rather direct politician in the States arguing that free texting for all American consumers would be a catastrophic move.

Allowing consumers to send text messages at no cost could lead to crashed mobile phone networks and a flood of unwanted promotional text messages, a lawmaker said on Monday.

Catanduanes Rep. Joseph Santiago, chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Information and Communications Technology, said removing the charges for SMS (short messaging service) would only swamp networks with junk messages that could eventually lead to recurring system crashes.

He warned that once texting is free the subscribers will “surely get unwelcome messages every minute, even during our sleep.”

Obviously the networks need to keep the lights on. I think the move to unlimited texting packages is perfectly fine. No cost? Well, … I wonder. I don’t think tha’ts the way to go.

It looks likes US operators will be texting their lawyers. According to RCR News, a class action lawsuit is afoot against “six mobile-phone carriers and a top mobile virtual network operator” over the cost of incoming and outgoing SMS.

RCR says the suit is looking for “recovery… for unauthorized charges, wrongful collections and unjust enrichment” as a result of, among other things, incoming text messages that incurred charges on users’ bills but which they allegedly couldn’t opt out of. The site also says a series of cramming suits have been filed against the US networks for allegedly charging customers for services they didn’t ask for.

An indication of America’s more litigious culture or that the US networks need to shape up customer service? One for the judges to decide.

The Pope will be on his way to Australia later this year for World Youth Day, and he’s already got plans to text followers when he lands. According to Aussie mobile operator Telstra, the Pope is planning to send daily “inspirational text messages” to his followers.

His Holiness is evidently a bit of a fan of high tech, and will also be using a World Youth Day social networking site, digital prayer walls, and Regional Catechesis webcast over Telstra’s 3G network. Telstra also said it will be setting up special precincts - “on the ground interactive centre’s including wireless internet, green screen studios, commemorative WYD08 photo messaging and music downloads”. Nice to see the Pope is a bit fan of data services…

After capping roaming rates for voice calls not so long ago, EU Commissioner Viviane Reding is now turning her sights on the cost of SMS and data while abroad. It’s all part of the latest consultation from the EC, which is aimed at getting opinions from those in the industry on how the new capped roaming regime is working.

Reding is now also putting the question of “whether regulation is necessary for data roaming services and SMS in light of current retail prices and market development” up for discussion. The last time the Commissioner mooted some new laws to govern roaming, prices for voice minutes abroad tumbled as operators tried to deter the EC from introducing more regulation. Fingers crossed this will have the same effect on SMS and data.

At the Internet World yesterday I popped by the Dynmark (the “texting people”) stand and caught up with their top man, Oscar, to see what was going on:

If you’re looking for a link to Dynmark’s e-txt desktop text service, it’s at here.