Phone Companies Attempt to Pump Up Short Messaging in US
Byline: Tamara Chuang

Dennis Chang, a Seal Beach resident, trained his right thumb to type short text messages on his cell phone -- he doesn't even have to look. He uses the messages to chat discreetly with his girlfriend at work or carry on a conversation in a noisy restaurant.

He barely remembers what life was like before SMS, or short messaging service, currently the star of a spate of TV commercials by telecom companies.

"Just about everyone I know uses it religiously, doing everything from forwarding cute jokes and cartoons around to lengthy conversations that would probably be better-served by picking up the phone and dialing," said Chang, 27 a computer programmer.

Though most of Chang's friends also use SMS, he concedes that "they all use it to communicate with friends and family overseas."

And there's the rub.

While SMS has exploded in Europe and Japan, the phenomenon has so far been ignored by most Americans. But recent moves by phone companies to make SMS easier to use, plus marketing campaigns promoting it, could be just the prod this nation needs.

America has a long way to go. While a projected 1.5 billion text messages will be sent by American users this year, Europe already averages 30 billion per month, according to market researcher International Data Corp.

"In Japan, it's considered rude to yap on your cell phone in the subway, so kids sit next to each other and SMS," said Doug Palladini, director of Cynic Youth + Alternative Marketing, a Santa Ana company that tracks youth trends. "In Scandinavia (home to Nokia and Ericsson) kids can SMS faster then they can talk."

But in the states, said Palladini, SMS just hasn't caught on. "Right now, most kids are still IMing (Instant Messaging on personal computers)," he said. "It's not happening here."

SMS proliferated overseas for several reasons. For one, fewer households overseas have PCs, so using a cell phone to message someone was the best alternative, especially for kids. You type a message on the phone's keypad, such as "LTNS" (Long time no see), enter a friend's phone number and hit send.

Text messaging also costs less than a cell-phone call in Europe or Asia. And Europe and most of Asia use one wireless text system, called GSM, or Global Satellite for Mobile communication. In the United States, there's GSM and a number of other, incompatible technologies, resulting in delays in getting messages or worse, the inability to send messages to friends on other networks.

One convert, Joy Gumz, gave up on SMS after moving back to the United States two years ago from Switzerland.

"I don't even use a cell phone anymore. The number of dropped calls was too annoying," said Gumz, a Mission Viejo software consultant who worked overseas for a year. "But if I ever work in Europe again, that would be the first purchase I would make."

In the United States, text messaging is a service from your cell phone company that costs up to 10 cents per message. You must have the right phone and you pay when you use it.

But one of the biggest obstacles has been the wireless-phone companies, which include AT&T Wireless, Verizon Wireless, Cingular, Nextel, VoiceStream and Sprint PCS. Until recently, they didn't allow their customers to send or receive messages to or from friends on other phone networks.

That began to change in November, when AT&T opened its system to other phone companies. Cingular followed last month, and Verizon opened up earlier this month.

"SMS traffic is up 500 percent in the last five to six months, although there was a very small number to begin with," said Scott Ellison, an analyst with International Data Corp.

AT&T kicked off its text-messaging thumb campaign earlier this year with mLife, pitching a wireless way of living. Remember the mysterious mLife TV commercials that debuted during the Super Bowl?

Since then, AT&T says, text messaging on its network has increased 109 percent. Last month, 42 percent of the messages generated on AT&T's network were sent to customers of other networks.

At the same time it opened its network to rivals, AT&T began selling only SMS-ready phones and stopped charging for incoming messages. By making the service available to all customers, the company hopes to encourage the spread of SMS.

"It's really a viral campaign. People realize how to use it because friends send them a message," said Janna Ucich, senior product marketing manager for AT&T Wireless. "The technology is only good if your friends also have it."

Will it really take off?

Maybe when it starts making money, said David Mock, a Placentia resident and author of "Tapping into Wireless," a book on wireless-technology investing. When teen-agers glommed on to it in Europe and Asia, there was incentive to create content, like custom ring tones and simple graphics. Wireless carriers like NTT DoCoMo in Japan successfully bundled Web surfing and SMS into what it called iMode. AT&T Wireless began offering a similar "mMode" service this week.

"It wasn't until they realized that `Hey, we could actually make money on this,'" Mock said. "That has yet to happen in the U.S."

SMS will become mainstream eventually, said Ellison, with IDC.

"Right now, it's kind of a fun thing to do, but it will become more standard in business," he said. "We think over time, business will be a huge market. Because when you think about it, it's essentially a short e-mail."

While he doesn't use it himself, Ellison predicts that he will someday for the same reason others will adapt.

"No one has ever sent me a message," he said. "But if my boss SMS's me, I'll be using it."