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 ... :)"
effpee?
This is gigantic Slashdot worthy news why?
Let's have a close look at the costs involved when running a Linux system.
An important factor in Linux' cost is its maintenance. Linux requires a *lot* of maintenance, work doable only by the relatively few high-paid Linux administrators that put themselves - of course willingly - at a great place in the market. Linux seems to be needing maintenance continuously, to keep it from breaking down.
Add to this the cost of loss of data. Linux' native file system, EXT2FS, is known to lose data like a firehose spouts water when the file system isn't unmounted properly. Other unix file systems are much more tolerant towards unexpected crashes. An example is the FreeBSD file system, which with soft updates enabled, performance-wise blows EXT2FS out of the water, and doesn't have the negative drawback of extreme data loss in case of a system breakdown.
According to Linux advocates, an alternative to EXT2FS would be ReiserFS. Unfortunately, ReiserFS is still in beta stage. This means it is not intended for production use (although according to many Linux advocates this shouldn't be a problem, which makes me wonder how (little) valuable they find your data).
The other proposed 'solution', EXT3FS, is nothing more than an ugly hack to put journaling into the file system. All the drawbacks of the ancient EXT2FS file system remain in EXT3FS, for the sake of 'forward- and backward compatibility'. This is interesting, considering that the DOS heritage in the Windows 9x/ME series was considered a very bad thing by the Linux community, even though it provided what could be called one of the best examples of compatibility, ever. When it's about Linux, compatibility constraints don't seem to be that much of a problem for Linux advocates.
Back to Linux' cost. Factor in also the fact that crashes happen much more often on Linux than on other unices. On other unices, crashes usually are caused by external sources like power outages. Crashes in Linux are a regular thing, and nobody seems to know what causes them, internally. Linux advocates try to hide this fact by denying crashes ever happen. Instead, they have frequent "hardware problems".
The steep learning curve compared to about any other operating system out there is a major factor in Linux' cost. The system is a mix of features from all kinds of unices, but not one of them is implemented right. A Linux user has to live with badly coded tools which have low performance, mangle data seemingly at random and are not in line with their specification. On top of that a lot of them spit out the most childish and unprofessional messages, indicating that they were created by 14-year olds with too much time, no talent and a bad attitude.
I could go on and on and on, but the conclusion is clear. Linux is not an option for any one who seeks a professional OS with high performance, scalability, stability, adherence to standards, etc.
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
cell phones are for fags
fifteenth post
To bad a genuinely helpful and uncommercally started SMS community will shut down. Atleast here in Finland most of the available SMS services are run by the operators and are generally shameless rip offs for your money.. "Order your biorythm to your mobile, only 1 per message"
"There is a terrorist behind every bush"
I like Linux. SMS on Linux is the best. Excellent.
Locust is a profit-making company. It's in their interests to maintain the status quo, because it provides them with a model for making money.
Locust's Terms and Conditions say include the statement that Locust reserves the right to change price plans or service features at any time if required, yet when Orange exercise the same right, they start kicking and screaming.
There are other mobile phone network operators in the UK - Vodafone, Cellnet, One2One. Why doesn't Locust talk to one of them with a view to switching providers?
I'm sorry, but I don't really see what the big deal is here. Seems to be another case of people wanting something without having to pay for it, both in terms of the disgruntled Locust users, and the people who profit from it.
Here in Australia sms is usually around 20 a message. I really want to see the cost come down and the complete introduction of mobile icq. Already you can sms from your icq and sms to icq for some carriers in some countries.
What is great about ICQ is you catch up with someone when you may not have even considered calling them ( you just see them on). THis would be great if extented to mobiles and you always got a list of your friends (and otherwise) that had their mobiles turned on.
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.
.... reminds me of a regional finance company that specialises in infrastructure funding (things like ring-roads, traffic bypasses, fibre, etc). They built a high-speed traffic bypass asnd started charging tolls. However, they found out residents were still using local roads so they did a deal with the state authority repsonsible for public roads to seal them off.
:-).
The point is that they did the conomic analysis and showed that there was a net savings in petrol consumption and driver's time. But in order for them to pay for building the new infrastructure, they had to convince motorists that there was no longer a free-ride. The problem is that motorists only saw the daily toll charges and not the weekly savings in petrol/time. Not to mention that very little advance warning was given to changing the road access. You can probably guess the PR fallout resulting from this
Sooner or later a similar scenario will happen with communications networks as they reach the limits of scaiability and in order to transition to a more efficient/lower cost/reduced maintenance system, they need to convince people of the benefits of switching This usually requires changing their usage patterns. Unfortunately aggressive telco upstarts don't always have the diplomatic skills to address customer's expectations. Pricing is a particularly sensitive point as there may be incredible customer acquisition costs or hidden cross-subsidies that distort the cost structure.
There has probably been some over-investments in network infrastructure that the current recession is revealing. As Warrne Buffett says, it's only when the tide goes out that you see who's swimming naked. Companies that pass the buck (literally) for their corporate mistakes are going to have a hard time keeping onto their customer base and will have to either swallow the losses (and shock horror forfeit the CEO bonuses/options) or else try and merge to gain monopoly pricing power and justify their executive packages. While some people may decry the double-sided nature of telcos and Wall Street, hopefully the survivors will be more sensitive to their users's needs.
LL
On top of all the Locust problems, Jon must be getting a bit sick of being mistaken for a progressive rock singer..! (The other Jon Anderson is a member of Yes)
(this is not a
:-p
/. faves:
Other
Imgn bwlf clstr f thm
All ur base r blng 2 us
Krma whrin
Locust is and always was used by a minority of users. 600 users out of Orange's 10,000,000.
It sprang up out of Orange's original free SMS service. Back in the days when SMS was hardly ever used and it was impossible to SMS across competing phone networks Orange offered, for £2.50 per month, SMS sending and receiving with no charges per message - and they didn't charge the monthly fee either.
This was on the basis that Orange hadn't perfected the system and that later on they would start to charge for the service - something that was told to everyone who signed up. Because of this Locust was able to start using very basic technology (A unix box and a phone with a serial cable) and reasonable low overheads.
When Orange started charging for Text messages they offered Text1500, a bulk text message service for £60 per month which offered unlimited messages.
At this rate, with Locust sending out 300,000 messages per month it was costing them about £0.0002 per message for the over the air portion. This compares very favourable to the £0.02 that other SMS sending services charge.
Companies today, more so with the economy slowing, are trying to make more money out of all of their subscribers and this is just one way that Orange have found to try and do that.
Also of note is that the same people as run Locust offer commercial SMS services run "properly" (Linked to mobile networks rather than using a mobile phone on a PC).
Matt Thompson - Actuality - Insert product here.
Why? The WAP portal is where the Euro providers really want their subscribers to go for information, news, etc. GPRS will give WAP some semblance of usability, after the initial flop, and many Euro providers, including the one I work for, have invested millions in their portal offerings. The old style SMS messaging services like this one are OK, as long as you agree to pay for the messages they send you, but anything that detracts from the portal is definitely not on the A-list.
Bottom line, the providers gotta pay down the G3 licenses, and SMS (eventually packetized SMS) is probably the best way to "migrate" the population slowly into G3 without losing the SMS-crazed kids who pay the bills.
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.
This is another example of free services coming to an end. More and more cellular providers are blocking messages sent from "free SMS websites" as well. Of course this could be expected... for telecoms and the Internet to be the mega-profitable businesses they were hyped to be, the customers will have to PAY for service. Offering free services is not going to yield you money. Free services were only a teaser to get customers interested.
British guys, you can thank France Telecom for that.
That bullshit company has always had a very bad policy towards SMS. You always had to pay to use Itineris, and now Orange SMS, including when using the web-sms gateway (it was only free when it was in beta stage, years ago).
It's the only phone company that charges for SMS sent from the web in France (SFR is 100% free, Bouygues requires free registration). They're the reason why SMS is so week in France.
I don't understand why this state-owned company is keeping trying to make money using unfair monopolistic attitude. It should be illegal...
France Telecom, Orange, Dutchtone, whatever it's named.. I have a Dutchtone phone myself, and found myself very irritated when Dutchtone appeared to block incoming messages from www.mtnsms.com, and several other free sites. Is that what I pay my monthly subscription for? Oh no, that's supposed to be for the calls I *make*.. Goddamn! Why can't any telecom company in Europe understand that the customer wants the flat fee model? I don't want to pay for every call, message or whatever I send or receive. Fuck off with your business models! I already feel like I'm an object to press money out of, and I'm not the only one. Protests don't work, and the lone providers who *are* good tend to switch to the Orange model as well - just again, because of the money...
When do these companies learn that I just don't want to spend more than, say $20 per month on my phone? I am not going to use WAP if that's going to cost more. Or I-Mode (whatever it is) or all those lame expensive services. I love to improve my life with better technology, but this is something else. To misquote their advertisements: the only thing that's easy to understand about telecom is that they want all my money.
For the past 2 or 3 days I have been unable to send SMS messages from icq to either orange or vodafone mobiles. It gives the reply "was not received by the recipient."
SaveLocust.org
Why is this Science?!
In the early days of GSM the operators saw their core business as voice telephony - they saw SMS as little more than a nuisance that had somehow crept into the spec and had little enthusiasm for it. But now thanks to the efforts of Locust and others who helped popularise SMS the networks are making a fortune on billions of 160-byte data chunks at ~15 cents per.
So in this case they could at least grandfather Locust's original tariff IMO.
"Don't belong. Never join. Think for yourself. Peace." V.Stone, Microsoft Corporation
Copy and uudecode to view the screenshot... I'm not sure what this means. Could it be that the announcement was wrong?
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end</I></I>
(look in my history for earlier news reports)
04 December 2001 : Taliban in Kandahar Remain Unaffected by US Bombing
ISLAMABAD (Islam News): The Governor of Kandahar, Mulla Muhammad Hasan Rahmani said Monday that despite heavy American bombing on Kandahar, the Taliban forces remain ready to fight. He further said that Mulla Muhammad Umar was safe and that the Taliban are defending Kandahar under his command and directions. He added that only Afghan civilians are being killed by the bombardment. "Nevertheless, we are ever-determined and our morale is high like before."
Mujahid Kills Three Northern Alliance Soldiers in Kabul
KABUL (Islam News): An Arab Mujaahid who was carrying explosives on his body detonated himself when attacked by Northern Alliance troops. Instead of surrendering himself, he preferred to go to Paradise, while sending the Alliance troops to the Hell-fire (we ask Allah that it is so).
Brothels and Vulgar Cinemas Re-Open in Kabul and Herat
KABUL, HERAT (Islam News): After the departure of the Taliban from Kabul and Herat, the vulgarity is rapidly increasing in these areas. Saunas and swimming pools which the Taliban closed for women have already been re- opened by the Northern Alliance. Furthermore, prostitutes have re-started their activites outside these swimming pools and saunas. Is this the type of 'modern' Islam that many anti-Taliban hypocrites amongst the Muslims have been calling for?
Anti-Taliban Pushtun Convoy Destroyed
KANDAHAR: During American bombardment of Kandahar Province, troops led by anti-Taliban Pushtun, Gul Agha, attempted an advance from Takhta Pul towards Kandahar Airport. They were ambushed by units of the Taliban. Three of their vehicles were destroyed, three of them were killed and dozens were injured. This was the first attempted advance on Kandahar Airport and it was rendered futile by the Taliban. It should be made clear that there have been many news reports concerning offensives on Kandahar for quite a few days. However, all of these reports have been baseless; the aforementioned attack was the first attempted advance of the enemy on Kandahar Airport.
Martyrdom Operation Kills Five Americans in Kandahar Province
QUETTA (Baluchistan Times): Mullah Ameenullah, the Taliban official for border affairs, reported that five American Special Forces troops were killed and 20 were injured Monday in a martyrdom operation near the small Kandahar Airport, 20km from Kandahar city. In the ensuing firefight, eight of the Taliban were martyred, may Allah accept them.
FBI Opens Immigration Controls at Karachi Airport, Pakistan
KARACHI (Daily Jang): The Pakistani newspaper, Daily Jang, reported over the weekend that the Pakistan Government, in line with its betrayal of Islam and the Muslims, has allowed the FBI to open immigration controls at Karachi International Airport. Their job is to scan the passports and details of every traveller leaving Pakistan and check them through American intelligence computers in case any traveller is wanted by America for 'Islamic activism'. Further posts are planned in international airports in Lahore, Islamabad and Peshawar. This dispels the rumours that the Pakistan Government was pursuing a double policy of cooperation with the United States.
www.qoqaz.net
WAP has failed once, and will fail again. Look to the Far East to see where the market will go, it isn't WAP its rich guis and more complex apps.
Java and other "rich" languages will be running on the next generation of mobile phones. WAP was a short term attempt to con people into buying pointless phones. WAP requires always on networking, something that doesn't exist in a tunnel or a tube, rich apps handle network failure and network blips.
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, and the providers don't really like WAP as its not giving them the sorts of services they feel people will pay for. Go grap the Nokia 9210, bulky today it maybe, but this is the sort of capabilities that all devices will have in the next year. Its got full web-browsing, not just WAP, Java, full PIM etc etc etc.
RICH Apps, Reliable Apps, and an end to crappy browser screens. Over the air provisioning of services, its already in the Far East, and it will come to Europe next.
An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
... a bunch of 13yr old kiddies sitting at the back of the bus beeping on and off throughout your journey.
;)
In the UK, SMS is an addiction for kids. Obviousely the immaturity level at this age shows that they don't understand that having an entire conversation over SMS will in fact take them 10 times as long and cost them 10 times as much as just picking up the phone and saying what they have to say in a few seconds. Some^H^H^H^HMost People need to start using this technology for it's proper purpose.. beep beep beep..
I certainly wouldn't mind seeing this locust chat/sms service go
"Never let the truth get in the way of a good story..."
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.
Flat rate is what most people want, too bad big business here doesnt listen.
I used to use the One-2-One email to SMS service. However then they decided to introduce a charge of 10pence for every SMS message that they sent you. This was for everything.
If you changed your password, they would send you a message saying password changed and charge you 10pence for that message, if someone send you junk email, you could be charged upto 90pence as the message would be separated in to 9 Text messages and sent to your phone.
It looks like Orange want to introduce a similar service, and for the average mobile user it is just not feasible.
What has a bunch of Tabacco leaves wrapped in a bit of paper got to do with you being a ragging homosexual donkey felcher?
I wonder if anyone here remembers Jon's original dawnraid bbs and the enlightened discussion of "cellular services" ;-)
Ha ha ha. The problem is that some greedy looser always wants to come between people and what they want. It's the "asshole in the middle" idea. The usual line is that they know better and that things will really be improved with you giving them money.
DMCA, Hollings, Palladium. What might have sounded like paranoia is now common sense.
I use an Orange mobile phone in the UK and am unable to get AOL's WAP client to work. I know people on Cellnet that can use it. Does anyone know why this happens? Is there any way to get AIM to work on an Orange phone? I've tried it on a Nokia 7110 and a Nokia 6210 - and as far as I know both of these handsets can use AIM on other networks.
Follow me
Do you have to be connected to the internet to be able to listen ? With ADSL or better its not so much of a problem, but most of the internet users don't have such a connection...
I wouldn't want to connect everytime just to listen.. or be restricted so much in how I can use the music... eg, swapping songs onto the laptop before taking a journey...
How did I end up posting in the SMS section when I clicked on the "Rent music over the Net" section.... thats a mystery to me.... Sorry.
Maybe paying for it is worth doing.
Oh... gee, wait. No, that would cost MONEY and these folks would rather retain access to magic infrastructure that elves maintain and operate without cost. Yeah.. bring back THAT network, Orange, you money-grubbing bastards!
tone
We are all the asshole in the middle. If someone is coming between you and something you want and you don't let them, aren't you coming between that person at what they want?
Cool! Amazing Toys.
have u guys ever considered that u never send a sms, because linguistically u can only send a sm, u dont send the service!