From 1994 onwards, after the first ever National Telecom Policy (NTP’ 94) was announced, India witnessed a series of explosions in the telecom sector, the latest being that of SMS (short message service). Being the cheapest and quickest person-to-person communication mode, at just Rs 1.50 per message, it is truly a remarkable success story of a technology introduced in India without any fanfare, just about five years back.

With over 6 million people using mobile phones in India (as on February 28, 2002), according to the official figures released by the Cellular Operators' Association of India (COAI), more than one million SMS messages are traversing every day as text messages over cellphones. Bidding goodbye to vowels and the age-old rigid rules of grammar, the youngsters and teeny—boppers all across India have coined a unique lingo with a whole lot of new abbreviations like "CU L8er" for "see you later", or "C U 2nite" for "see you tonight", or "U R Swt" for "you are sweet", for saying as much as possible in as few words.

But, what is this Short Message Service? As defined in GSM digital mobile phone standard, SMS is nothing but a short message comprising upto a maximum of 160 characters (words, numbers or alphanumeric combination) which can be sent as text. Unlike paging, the sender of a message can receive a return message notifying him whether the message has been delivered or not. Globally accepted wireless service, SMS is one hi-tech service which comes more or less at a throw away price.

SMS facility can be availed by any one who has a mobile phone that supports SMS and is also a subscriber of a mobile telephone network that supports SMS. These messages can be sent and received in all major languages of the world. Very soon, SMS facility will be available in Hindi also. Some mobile network operators provide automatic access to SMS while others charge a monthly subscription. Normally an SMS platform can handle about 20 messages per second which is considered good enough to handle traffic on a normal day. But, looking at its extraordinary popularity, operators are installing upgraded systems which can handle upto 40 messages per second.

India, too, is witnessing a sharp increase in SMS traffic with an average of about 30 million short messages being sent and received every month. But, on special occasions, the traffic shoots up exponentially. For example, on Diwali last year Delhites exchanged nearly 40 lakh greetings through SMS, in text as well as in graphics, as against 11-12 lakh messages exchanged on a normal day. Similarly, in Mumbai, over 20 lakh greetings were exchanged through SMS. In fact, SMS traffic, all over India, registered a 300-400 per cent increase on that day. A similar pattern was witnessed on Christmas and New Year's eve. Though still in its infancy in India, SMS accounts for nearly two per cent of the revenue of cellular operators.

It is, therefore, not surprising that European basic telephone operators are toying with the idea of introducing SMS on landlines, for offsetting revenue losses because of the declining demand of fixed telephones. This will enable the fixed line telephone users also to send and receive short text messages on their home telephones. In fact, an Italian telecom company claims to have already introduced fixed as well as cordless phones capable of receiving and sending SMS.

Individuals apart, SMS has proved to be a boon to the crime branch of police force as well, both in India and abroad. In January, this year, Delhi Police launched its SMS to provide some basic public utility enquiry services, namely, status of passport verification, recovery status of stolen vehicles and fire arms and verification of ownership while buying second-hand cars. The system is connected to a data bank which sends software generated responses automatically. The data bank has a list of registration numbers of over 38 lakh vehicles registered in the city, a list of nearly 19 lakh Delhi telephones as well as ISD and STD codes of all important inland and overseas destinations running into several lakhs.

Ironically, SMS has proved to be a boon to the criminals as well, and has sent intelligence agencies in a tizzy. Unlike the calls made on a mobile phone, their messages can neither be monitored nor their origin traced, at least till such time a suitable software is developed to keep a tab on these messages. Such a software has not been developed as yet. With the available technology, these messages can, at best, be jammed. But, this is no solution.

With continuous advances in technology, SMS is now no more just a person-to-person communication service. An Indian company has recently introduced a system through which an organisation, instead of sending individual messages, can send short messages of common interest, in bulk to all. For example, if a flight is delayed, the airline can take recourse to SMS for sending a common message to all passengers through its corporate site. Even a person not having a cell phone of his own, can use SMS for sending a common message to all his colleagues by getting on to the corporate site, from a cyber cafe.