Americans in Emergency text message scare!

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Andrew Orlowski <andrew.orlowski () theregister co uk>
Date: April 3, 2006 4:12:04 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] Americans in Emergency text message scare!

Dave.  Before this discussion becomes too arcane, may I just point  
out the fact that about a billion people in the world rely on SMS as  
the most reliable messaging technology available.

SMS is the data on-ramp for the much of the world.

So are a billion people being really stupid?

Not really. If you go to Paraguay, Thailand, Uganda or all points in  
between, SMS is the only universal data exchange that is widely  
trusted. It's about reliability. It's an expensive proposition to "go  
online" (as a Californian would understand it) in such countries, and  
this offers little guarantee that the message will get through.  
Hotmail, or Yahoo Mail messages sent from a cybercafe don't offer the  
same level of assurance as an SMS text message. Once sent, that  
message must navigate the oceans of spam on the open internet, and  
spam filters ISPs set up to thwart spam.

So it's no surprise that texting, being so personal, is so popular.

When we read:

>  Most people don't realize how limited cell phone capacity really is

The translation is: Americans Need to Travel More.


with best wishes,


Andrew Orlowski
US Editor, The Register
San Francisco CA





> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: Patrick Traynor <traynor () cse psu edu>
> Date: April 2, 2006 5:18:26 PM EDT
> To: dave () farber net
> Subject: Re: [IP] more on Emergency text messages and AB 2231
>
> Dave,
>
> 	Lauren is correct. We talked about this very phenomenon in our  
> paper "Exploiting Open Functionality in SMS-Capable Cellular  
> Networks" in October. If you are looking for a technical  
> perspective, please see http://www.smsanalysis.org
>
> -Patrick
>
> ------------------------------------------------

--


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