Slashdot Mirror
World's First SMS Text Messaging May Fade Soon
Infractor writes: "UK Mobile provider Orange has moved to pull the plug on the world's first ever text message community -- Locust Cellular
Linux hacker Jon Anderson built the service, similar to wireless email and IRC chat back in 1996. A student Linux project, accidently became the first service to offer interactive text message facilities on this UK network. After Locust's forced closure was announced to its members, a huge campaign has been organised by the subscribers to draw attention to the incredible value which has been created by this unique SMS community." (There's more below.)
"Hundreds of personal letters and testimonials have already been posted on the community action site which is at SaveLocust.org -- This site also has an expose on what is described as 'Orange's Hypocrisy' over claims that it is launching a competitive service to Locust. An article has already appeared on TheRegister.co.uk
For the UK, this is a unique social phenomena, driven by the power and intimacy of text messaging. Please review the evidence for yourself. This community shows what technology can really do in the wireless world. Locust still runs on good ole Linux 2.0.33 -- if it aint broke ... :)"
I used this service for a long time. It was always reliable (and you could even play chess against it on long train journeys :-)
:-(
It would be a great shame to lose it. Last time it was under threat was when Orange changed from a flat monthly fee for SMS (2 quid a month, unlimited SMS) to a charge-per-SMS (0.05 GBP per message). A deal was struck then that kept Locust online.
It will be a sad day if it shuts - genuine innovation and genuine value-for-money
What will happen when GPRS becomes more common? Many of the services that Locust offer via SMS seem much more naturally suited to GPRS. It may be that Locust will run out of users in the long-run anyway as these services become more common place as part of a GPRS subscription.
I used to use Locus back in the days when I didn't have a internet connection at home (I lived in halls at uni and we had no landline) to tell me when I got email on a particular address so that I could nip across if I was, say, in the student bar, and read the mail. Importantly it was free for each SMS (unlike any other provider) so spammers didn't end up costing me a fortune.
Of course now I have broadband at home and fat pipes at work I don't need this anymore, but back then it was a real boon.
I guess what I'm saying is that these guys offered a real innovative service which I was really grateful for, and I wish them the best in the future.
-- Sorry, I can't think of anything funny to say here.
Vodafone Australia apparently offers ICQ from phone functionality, they can afford it possibly because they have no customers.
It is rumored that Telstra will be offering free SMS next year, I have no idea if there is any truth to that. In any case it's no good to me because I'm with Optus.
But I agree, 20c, or rather 22c inc GST to send 200 bytes of data across the network is ridiculous, hardly "excellent value" as the telcos describe it. Imagine if your ISP charged with those rates!
Mobile operators have been kicked in the head by the amazing takeoff of SMS messages. Globally, about 750 million messages get sent a day (that's no typo, check out http://www.gsmworld.com/news/press_2001/press_rele ases_28.html for the scoop. Operators have had to revamp their pricing structure a bit - for instance, they're all now negotiating a "pay me to deliver" (dunno what it's really called) structure, whereby operators charge other operators to receive SMS from their network. Currently, it's screwed up international SMSing (Vodafone won't let me use Excell anymore, for instance). But at this SCALE of messaging, it was bound to come. We just have to hope that they don't pass on the delivery cost to the consumer - I've never paid to receive an SMS, and I don't wish to start now.
WAP may not have broad acceptance but it does have niche markets where it is used quite often. For example there was an article in the Saturday Times about six months ago which was basicly about how technology is changing british agriculture and in it it had several farmers saying that they find WAP very usefull because it allows them to check the weather and crop prices while they are in fields, instead of having to cut into their 'free time' when they are at home to check these. I for one find WAP very usefull then I am on the move as it allows me read all the news on CNN.com
Java and other "rich" languages will be running on the next generation of mobile phones.
WAP is not a language. WAP (Wireless Aplication Protocol) is a protocol just like HTTP, of which it is (to an extent) a subset. It is just a way of get information to a handset with limited resources in terms of handset overhead and bandwidth. The place where java will appear in phones in on the OS level where Java's native features will be best place to work with the wide range of media that will be pushed to out phones by 3G carriers.
The future is out there in Japan and the Far East. It is SMS, it is MMS (multi-media messaging system) and it is rich apps. Its not WAP
You're right, its not WAP, but neither is it SMS or MMS. If you look at the far east the only place where you'll find interesting new things on your mobile is Japan. In Japan their largest mobile telco (DoCoMo) offers a service called i-mode, this is actually just a slightly cut down 3G protocol and has nothing to do with SMS or MMS. In europe GPRS will help to offer similar services untill 3G networks are fully rolled out.
The 9210 does have some nice features, but since it need a bag to carry it in I'd rather sitck with my laptop and my 6210 expecially since the 6210 offer high-speed data access (when you use it with Orange in the UK, I don't know about other places)
I think we should be happy with WAP for offering a service to a neich market instead of criticising it simply because it doesn't offer you everything that you want.