Hello Wireless!

This humble writer was introduced to the Internet six years ago when Internet connection speeds via a dial-up modem was a mere 9.6k. You could compare that to a leaking faucet versus today’s faster dial-up speeds of 56k or broadband’s blazing 300k. Oh, the Internet is such a fascinating product. It offers such a vast pool of information and services at a click of a mouse, without even having to leave the comforts of your home. This beats all those laborious hours I had to spend at Ateneo’s cold Rizal library back in college! Nevertheless, with all the Internet’s practicality, why should I be confined to a location to enable access to needed information? If I need the information or service now, shouldn’t I be able to get it now? Finally, hello wireless technology! I fell in love again.

Wireless communication is gaining global adoption at an exciting rate. Consumers recognize that mobile communication is not confined to making voice calls through a cellular phone. Technologies such as SMS, WAP, GPRS and the like have cultivated innovative and relevant applications for mobile subscribers. In the Philippines, it is SMS or "texting" that triggered the phenomenal growth of this dynamic industry.

The GSM Association recently announced that there are now more than 500 million GSM cellular customers in the world, nearly 70 percent of the world’s digital wireless market. Wireless Internet access, transactions and such will far exceed those of PCs by mid-2002 as reported by research group IDC. This prediction is not farfetched as for every Internet user today, there are three wireless subscribers around the world. In the Philippines, there are now 10 million mobile subscribers against two million PC users. Wireless networks and the Internet are converging to bring consumers and businesses a new type of commerce – m-commerce. Mobile handhelds will be used to communicate, inform, transact and entertain. All of this practical service is now available anywhere, anytime.

I manage the Philippine’s premier and most progressive wireless applications development company, BidShot Wireless Services. We conceptualize, develop and host wireless applications for clients Globe Telecom and Smart Communications for the purpose of offering their subscribers various SMS or "texting" value-added services (VAS). Under the carriers’ VAS services, you will have fun and games, information on demand, text polling, mobile auctions, mobile banking and many more. Also, we service the wireless applications development requirements of various corporate clients for their, but not limited to, marketing, promotions, entertainment, customer development and info-on-demand services. BidShot has also been cultivating its own wireless community with our own brand of innovative wireless products. I will further discuss them in future articles.

BidShot believes that the future lies in mobility and recognizes people’s need to access information and get in touch with other people anytime, anywhere, without the inconvenience of a wire. The premise behind BidShot Wireless Services is the relentless pursuit of innovation and perfection. The unique and determined individuals who make up the BidShot team share this vision and mission unanimously, and we would like to share it with you. BidShot Wireless Services enables and develops SMS-based services for the wireless community through a medium that is now seeing explosive growth globally. We also are starting to witness the rollout of GPRS mobile phones and its network, which will allow users to stay continuously connected to the Internet wherever they may be. As we speak, BidShot’s R&D team is developing content for such technology and by Q1 2002, please do look forward to their release.

In the meantime, it is apparent that SMS or text messaging is not just a fad – it’s here to stay. With the increasing volume of text messages being sent and received around the world, there is no doubt that the SMS’ simplicity and its being an economical way of communicating with others have now already made it a way of life.

This service is so popular that more than 50 billion text messages were sent over the world’s GSM networks in the first three months of 2001, according to the GSM Association. This confirms sustained global consumer interest in text communications with networks on track to exceed forecast of 200 billion global SMS messages for 2001.

In just two years, the number of SMS messages sent worldwide has grown from one billion messages per month (April 1999) to an average of more than 16 billion messages per month in Q1 2001, up fivefold from the same period last year, with no sign of slowdown. In the Philippines today, we do 100 million messages a day.

Rob Conway, CEO of the GSM Association, agreed, "The continuing growth demonstrates that the popularity of SMS is not due to a passing trend. Texting is now achieving mass market status in many markets of the world. Today, the visual message is as powerful and popular as voice."

(The author is managing director of BidShot Wireless Services. For comments or suggestions, e-mail [email protected].)