Rating: Text/SMS or email also consume little bandwidth
It seems that mobile phone users weren’t given much good advice on the best way to use their cellular mobile phones during Hurricane Irene which recently hit the East Coast of the USA. Eventually the US Federal Emergency Management Agency urged the public to “Use email or text messages…so that emergency officials can continue to receive and respond to urgent calls.” This definitely sounds like closing the stable door after the horse has bolted. It came after so many people tried to call friends and relatives to check on their safety that the cellular networks became overloaded. GoMo News reckons that the best thing to have used would almost certainly be an Instant Messaging (IM) service such as BlackBerry Messenger offered by RIM.
On paper it would seem that sending an SMS/text would be the best option. However, this has several downsides. Firstly, SMS takes advantage of the signalling channel of cellular networks.
So, if you are going to clog the network up by attempting to communicate with loved ones, then swamping the signalling channel with loads of additional traffic (even though each text consumes very little data) isn’t ideal.
The second major problem with an SMS is that there is no acknowledge meant of receipt.
So you’re not going to know if some-one has received your message and hasn’t called because they can’t get through.
Whereas an IM service provides a much swifter response and if you’ve installed the very latest version (6) of BBM on your BlackBerry, you can get confirmation that your message has been delivered and read.
It is even possible to send your location during a chat session. That could be highly useful during a hurricane because it would immediate inform your loved ones where you are so that they can better gauge whether you are or not in danger.
Another advantage is that an IM service like BBM actually works over a GPRS connexion which is the absolutely basic of all mobile data connexions. You don’t have to rely on getting a 3G link.
Emails can also travel over GPRS and there are ways of ensuring that you get confirmation when somebody has opened the email. However, IM is easier to use.
So, GoMo News reckons the best advice authorities could give is to use an IM service to avoid clogging the network with unnecessary voice calls.
Your column above is incorrect. When you state:
“So, if you are going to clog the network up by attempting to communicate with loved ones, then swamping the signalling channel with loads of additional traffic (even though each text consumes very little data) isn’t ideal.”
SMS travels over the service channel and not the voice channel, number one. This is why SMS always works. It does not share the same channel with voice. Second, SMS data is so infinitesimally small that there is not “clogging” of the network. This is why people use SMS.
During Huricane Katrina, 9/11, the recent hurricane up the east coast of the U.S., SMS continued to work with absolutely no “clogging” of the network. Look, the data amounts are just too small to even fill up half of the channel.
Your comparison of filling up the networks is like telling someone not to drink milk because you are trying to keep the cow from losing weight so you can eat more meat. There is no basis in your comment about “clogging” the network.
Next, your comment of not receiving a reply is ridiculous. If the person you are trying to connect with doesn’t have a Blackberry, where are you now? And if they do, but don’t have a data connection, where are you now? With Blackberry’s representing less than 10% of the total phones in use capable of receiving or sending SMS or Blackberry messenger, your advice here teeters on irresponsibility to try BBM.
Don’t forget, SMS continues to try to reach the end user until that handset comes back in range or is on. SMS tries for days to connect to the sender. The message just does not die out there instantly if it can’t connect.
Lastly, what about the 60% of users who don’t have IP capable phones? What should they do? A wing and a prayer?
Obviously you have never tried to send an SMS on New year’s Eve. One texts do get lost and two it does clog up the network so that voice calls can’t get through either.
Also we were just using BM as an example, any IM service would work just as well.
And where on earth do you get your figure that only 40 per cent of handsets on the cellular networks are IP capable?
1) In the United States cell phones that 1) Have IP capability 2) Are paying for a data plan 3) Are using IP comes in at just under 40%. Check with Chetan Sharma if you like, but this is an accurate figure, not one blown out of proportion by research firms that get paid by IP based supporters to beef up their numbers. This is what I do, I am extremely confident of my 40% number.
2) Sure I have tried to send an SMS on New Years. I have also tried to make a call at midnight and also tried to use the data network. None of the above worked so well, but SMS won by a long shot. The web page never came up, so forget data and calling, well that was a joke. At least my message was sent off. It may have been received 30 minutes late, but it made it…unlike my web page or call…
SMS goes over the service channel for a reason. It has been tested time and time again and is always the preferred method of communication during high traffic times. IP based solutions will come of age, but not until the vast majority of folks have phones capable of these applications. So, your 40% or my 99.9% of SMS active phones? I’ll take the 99.9%.
Would that be the same Chetan Sharma which was paid to research the 2D barcode market by NeoMedia? Oh, yes. So it is. Read our site and see just how accurate that company was.
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