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Mobile telephony is changing the lifestyle of people and business
communications worldwide with billions of SMS sent worldwide annually and over
50 million carrier grade SMS sent in
Nigeria
daily, SMS is positioned to be the most used
communications medium of all time.
Despite the widespread illiteracy in
Nigeria and
many other countries in
Africa , SMS is still widely
used even in tribal languages which do not need special alphabets. Early
adopters like in the Philippines, the SMS Capital of the world where about 500
million sms was sent on New year day 2008,is an example of country where
emerging economics should learn from in areas of SMS services deployment.
SMS does not require any special application download like other mobile
medium like mms, wap and Gprs and this is one unique advantage it has and hence
is spread and popularity.
While many European and Asian countries use sms extensively to further
their lifestyle and businesses, Nigerians are not exploring much of this cheap
technology apart from “text-2-win” promos.
SMS can be very useful in many spheres of the economy. In the Public
sphere for example in
Philippines ,
low income taxes are already being administered via sms and it is a huge
success. It is very fast , efficient and easy to administer. In many Asian
countries, emergency numbers alerts systems are deployed for emergency
notifications during natural disasters like earthquake , Tsunami and Hurricanes
while Nigerians are free from these natural catastrophes, theirs are man made
disasters like Armed banditry, militancy, corruption, HIV, poor governance and
police harassment. Simple sms feed back systems can help in all these areas.
The Niger Delta villager can be empowered to send a simple sms to report an oil
spillage before it gets out of hand, citizens can send sms to a short code to
report criminal activities, sms can be used as a whistle blower for the corrupt
officials, police feed back systems with live sms updates will go a long way in
tackling criminal elements in our society.Traffic offenders are now tracked via
SMS is some countries and all the enforcement officer needs to do is send
sms with plate numbers to do a back ground check on any motorist, anytime and
anywhere!!! It is cheap and efficient.
Already some European nations are already toying with the idea of
having sms elections in future elections .All the voter is required to do is to
check for their eligibility by texting their social security numbers to a short
code and if eligible, they get a response and they cast their vote via sms.
In Business Sphere, SMS is doing well in
Nigeria
as Banking services notification system which helps to
check mate fraudulent activities but it is yet to be deployed for more robust
services like check verification systems and third party payment systems.
Sms feedback systems is also changing customer facing technology in the
FMCG sector. SMS feedback systems allows product owners and service providers
to quickly get customers complaints via sms. This was not possible before as
customers are either required to call an unmanned call centre number or send it
through email.
Now SMS Brochure requesting is possible in Most part of
Europe
and people just make request through sms to get product brochure and
even account opening forms.
SMS is not about “text-2-win” promotions. It is more than that. It is a
powerful tool that can be used in all areas only if private entrepreneurs will
see the opportunities.
Emmanuel Okoegwale
Emmanuel@mobileworldmag.com
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Posted by Robot| 16.05.2008 23:25