TCS's SMS/Text Volume Nearly Triples in 2009

If there is any hard numbers proof of the growing popularity of SMS/text messaging, TeleCommunication Systems has it. TCS announced that the company’s short message service center application, running on platforms in wireless carriers’ networks is set to process close to 700 billion text messages by the end of 2009. That is over two-and-a-half times the volume the SMSC platform handled in 2008. TCS also expects the upcoming 2009 New Year’s Eve busiest hour spike to be nearly three times the spike of last year.

 

TCS’ messaging software has already powered approximately 480 billion messages through the third quarter of this year, surpassing the expected two billion messages per day mark. The company expanded its deployed messaging platform base by nearly 30 percent in 2009, as TCS wireless carrier customers continue to experience and forecast strong growth in text messaging.

 

TCS is not alone in seeing SMS/texting growing. According to a recent report from Frost and Sullivan, the text messaging demand is estimated to increase by more than 50 percent in 2010.

 

And with more and affordable and smartphones with user-friendly virtual or tactual keyboards being purchased over the holiday season expect that demand to increase. My wife just got a BlackBerry (News - Alert) Storm and is considering using texting to contact her son now that it is practical. She’s already been on Facebook on her device while riding the bus to/from her job.

 

A key driver of text messaging growth is social media, reports TCS. Social networking applications are playing a large role in driving SMS growth beyond rates initially envisioned, as more consumers have recognized the power of SMS integrated with social media as a cost effective and timely method of communicating with their friends, family and business associates.

 

Twitter is one such application that TCS expects will continue to play a major role in driving future SMS growth. According to a recent statement by the co-founder of Twitter, “There are over one billion people with Internet access on the planet but there are more than four billion people with mobile phones and Twitter can work on all of them because even the simplest of these devices feature SMS.”

 

TCS’ SMSC offers flexible deployment options and allows operators to configure its systems to meet customer messaging traffic needs. It supports store and forward, first delivery attempts and voting capabilities over standard air interfaces and over mobile broadband.

 

In anticipation of future growth TCS has signed another multi-quarter capacity agreement with its largest commercial customer to extend support for the continued rapid rate of text messaging growth. This agreement, as well as record license sales for TCS in 2009, illustrates it says that text messaging is seemingly recession-proof, with continued significant growth expected in 2010.

 

“Our largest commercial customer has again shown its confidence in our messaging applications by committing to purchase a large amount of capacity through the end of 2010,” said Drew Morin (News - Alert), TCS chief technology officer and senior vice president. “This validates the reliability of our messaging platform and its ability to easily scale to support rapidly growing text message volumes within the world’s largest carrier networks. This solution is performance engineered to withstand extremely high spikes in traffic. We look forward to setting a new record in messages processed over the holiday season, as well as enabling new innovative applications over the coming year.”

 

To ensure that the text messages are wanted – New Jersey lawmakers, with the mobile marketing industry’s support – are considering legislation that would ban unsolicited text-message advertisements to residents if they incur a telecommunications charge or a usage allocation deduction.

 

Mobile Marketer reports that state senators Joseph Vitale and Sean Kean are backing a bill that mandated prior permission of the recipient to send an advertisement via SMS may be granted only by the recipient. That permission includes the number to which to send the text message ad.

 

Violators would face fines put forth in New Jersey’s Consumer Fraud Act. First offenses could cost offenders as much as $10,000. Fines for subsequent violations could reach $20,000. If the violators had knowledge or should have had knowledge that the victim is a senior citizen or someone with disability, they could be fined as much as $30,000.

Under the bill marketers who send only one such text message during a 12-month period would not be liable. For legitimate marketers, the bill would require them to give consumers the option to block all incoming and outgoing text messages.

 

One company, SMS marketing firm Sumotext, not only supports the bill but gave the Mobile Marketer reporter some suggestions to beef it up. These include require that all messages be sent over a short code, and not Web-based SMTP to SMS via the carriers’ exposed gateways. When messages are sent via SMTP and converted to SMS by the carrier, the consumer cannot respond with “stop” or “help” to end the delivery. Also all messages to be tagged with “reply stop to opt-out.”

 

“I think [the bill] is great and don’t see a problem,” said Tim Miller, Sumotext’s president of told Mobile Marketer. ”Every legitimate provider is going to have an opt-in record on file, i.e. a mobile-originated message where the consumer joined by texting a keyword to a short code.”

 

Gary Schwartz, president and CEO of Impact Mobile, Toronto, Ont. Canada, said the mobile market has done a good job of self-regulation and any initiative that works to protect consumers from unwanted text is positive. The bill proposed, he was reporting as saying appears very fair and should be applauded by legitimate marketers in the mobile industry.

 

“For a legitimate marketer, it ensures that their message will be welcomed and received by the consumer, thus maintaining the integrity of the one-to-one dialogue between the brand and the consumer,” Schwartz said.