By Devine Kofiloto, Senior Research Analyst
As SMS continues to grow in popularity a gradually increasing number of landline operators are beginning to launch this service through cordless fixed line phones. In making SMS available to a broader community the most likely rationale is to stimulate its usage among new market segments such as parents and senior subscribers who do not own mobile phones. For the fixed line operators this might be a way of addressing the fixed to wireless migration trend and retain customers, particularly the younger generation, who have led the rapid take-up of mobile phones in the last few years. The surge in mobile phone penetration over the last few years has in most instances been at the expense of fixed telephone connections.
SMS over cordless phones is already available in Germany and Italy and before end 2002 most other European operators are expected to launch the service. Deutsche Telekom's SMS-to-voice service was launched in July 2001. The service delivers SMS messages from a T-Mobile mobile phone to a fixed line telephone. Approximately two million SMS messages were recorded sent to the fixed line network each month during the first three months of service. Beyond that, the operator is reluctant to disclose any further traffic figures, though unconfirmed reports suggest about 200,000 messages per day are sent over this medium. The cost of the service is the same as sending a SMS message to a mobile, which is EUR 0.19. Rivals D2 and E-Plus are also offering the service in the German market.
In Italy TIM has had fixed line SMS services since early 2000. Unconfirmed reports say that 0.5 messages are sent per day per active user over the operator's fixed line. The active user base is believed to be around 500,000.
H2 2002 is likely to see other European operators launching services. German software developer Speech Design, which partnered Deutsche Telekom in the roll-out of its services, has announced that it plans to extend its speech-enabled SMS text messaging service to other European telecom providers. The traditional application platform providers have also been quick to address this emerging need among service providers. Comverse claims it is in the implementation phase with two major European operators (which it cannot name) who are scheduled to launch wireline SMS services, probably in Q3 2002. In June 2002 Logica announced the release of its fixed line SMS centre (FSMSC), a tool that allows landline users to send and receive SMS messages. The company is yet to announce an agreement with any operator planning to roll out the service. Speech Designs' system has also been implemented by Denmark's TDC, which is currently running a pilot and plans to launch services commercially in Q3 2002. In Norway Telenor also has the service in place for its fixed line subscribers. In February 2002 Vodacom in South Africa selected Speech Design Carrier Systems to deliver mobile SMS to any fixed line telephone.
Asia
SingTel in Singapore launched its wireline SMS service on 18 June 2002. Users need SMS-enabled phones, retailing between $80 and $100, that come with a LCD screen to display SMS messages. The operator plans on offering the service for free during the month of June 2002. Though price has not yet been finalised it is expected to be close to that for wireless handsets, at around $0.05-0.10 per message, with no charge for receiving messages. Presently, only SMS messages from SingTel Mobile users can be received, however, the company is reportedly in talks with MobileOne, StarHub Mobile and Virgin Mobile to iron out interconnection details. According to a SingTel spokesman, response from its trials for the service, which started in November 2001, has been positive with 5,000-6,000 customers using the new service daily.
In the Philippines as far back as February 2001 GLOBE Telecom began offering its Globelines 1-900-TXT SMS services to its landline phone subscribers. Rival PLDT also launched its fixed line SMS service called TXT 135 in the very same month after Globe, enabling its landline telephone subscribers to send SMS messages to mobile subscribers of Smart Communications and Piltel Corporation.
What has led to the move towards fixed line SMS in these particular markets? Whilst penetration is high in the European markets and Singapore, it is not in the Asian countries. What these markets together have in common, however, is high SMS usage among their subscriber base. In Norway 1.8 billion SMS messages were sent in 2001 over NetCom and Telenor Mobil's network, while in the Philippines 25.6 billion were recorded sent over Globe and Smart's network (Source: EMC SMS Datasheet/EMC World Cellular Data Metrics).
Source: EMC Word Cellular Database
Handset availability
With SMS spreading from the mobile networks to the fixed ones there is an increasing interest from major cordless phone vendors to provide systems able to support this functionality. Siemens, Philips and Panasonic, are all supplying cordless DECT phones capable of carrying SMS. In between them these three major handset manufacturers are believed to account for almost half of the cordless DECT phones on the European market. In addition there are also a number of small players providing dedicated SMS-capable terminals, such as Danish based Viking Telecoms.
Conclusion
Wireline SMS is definitely gaining momentum and broadening the reach of SMS to those market segments that so far do not use SMS. Coupled with text-to-speech software which is usually available to convert messages, it will presumably make texting easier, and probably help push up traffic volume to attain the GSM Association's total forecast for 2002 of 360 billion messages, but in terms of significance in relation to SMS over mobile it is still likely to occupy a niche position.
*************************************************************
BUY THE MOST THOROUGHLY RESEARCHED MESSAGING DATA FROM EMC
SMS Traffic Datasheet (published June 2002)
- Spreadsheet of SMS data in Excel format
- 40 operators
- Data to be presented will be by operator by quarter in millions of messages for eight quarters from Q1 2000-Q4 2001
- Comments displayed with sourcing and reference notes
- Focused on Western Europe, but also to include China, Philippines, and other South East Asian operators.
- Price GBP 699/USD 999/EUR 1,109
http://www.emc-database.com/website.nsf/index/SMSTD_intro
*************************************************************
EMC World Cellular Data Metrics (available from September 2002)
A Quarterly Datasheet of messaging and mobile data indicators
This NEW Mobile Data package tracks mobile data usage and take-up and is backed by EMC's comprehensive research programme tracking cellular operations worldwide.
Contents: - SMS traffic volumes per quarter
- Mobile data users (including GPRS and cdma1x) per quarter
- Mobile data tariffs
- MMSC contract awards
- Mobile data deployments
- Data as % of revenue
Contact for further information:
Meta Thomas
Sales Manager
Tel: + 44 1932 266 900
Fax: + 44 1932 266 950
E-mail: mthomas@emc-database.com
http://www.emc-database.com/marketdata.nsf
Press enquiries - speak to our analysts at pressinfo@emc-database.com
|