John Linton
In a 'previous life' (some 6 years ago) I introduced the process of advising ADSL customers of network problems via an SMS service which we sourced from a third party at the cost of 18 cents an SMS sent out. Since that time the number of network outages per year has fallen sharply (to practically zero) and the ability to send SMS has reached the desktop at less than half the cost (and with no volume commitment) that I had to deal with six years ago.
The customer desktop interface is simple and easier to use than that of a mobile phone because you get a full size keyboard and a full size screen. SMS services from various sources around the world range from "free" to a few cents per message with a whole range of additional address book, bulk SMS, SMS to Email etc functions that makes such a service a very real benefit to small and large businesses and to a range of residential users (sports team managers/party invitations/camping trips/etc).
I don't know how reliable the figure of SMS generating $1 billion of mobile revenue a year in Australia is but presumably there was some basis for that figure. If that figure is remotely accurate then presumably the market for a much lesser cost and an as easy/easier to use and more functional SMS over DSL service will quickly 'eat in to' that market.
The use of VoIP messaging in Exetel's business operations to advise customer's of the progress of their application and updating them on what is happening with any fault they have lodged has been a major efficiency that we introduced over 15 months ago and we now use VoIP messaging in over ten areas of our daily business. At our purchase cost of both VoIP and SMS it's line ball for Exetel to use one or the other. However we are considering giving our DSL users the option of nominating whether they want advices from Exetel sent by voice to a wire line telephone or by SMS to a mobile contact number.
At the most commonly charged VoIP local/national call rate of 10 cents per call in Australia a 5 - 7 cent SMS from DSL would be a big saving to any business and a real saving to a residential user whose SMS charges on their mobile were significant. We have begun to make this service avaialble to our DSL customers and have been surprised at the rapid take up for this service and the feedback from the customers on what additional facilities they want has been very useful in guiding the developers who have added over a dozen functions based on those suggestions.
It will be interesting to see how SMS from the desktop develops over the next few months.