Send an SMS from your PC

Whenever R. Shailaja, a software programmer at a small Mumbai-based start up, was confronted with a problem she couldn't solve, she would log on to one of the scores of web sites that offered free short messaging services (SMS), such as sms.ac "� her company banned chatting on the web.

So she'd send an SMS from her personal computer (PC) to friends and colleagues around the globe. Often, a solution to her problem would come in double quick time.

Shailaja is among the hundreds of PC SMS aficionados whose world has come crashing. For the past few months she has been having a very difficult time. A number of web sites that once offered free SMS have started charging for them.

A few that are still free are either very slow or no longer reliable "� her messages don't reach those they are intended for. Complains Shailaja: "They are a bit too slow and unreliable."

We agree only partly. We tried out three Indian sites that still offer free SMS services: IndiaMobiles.com (which has nothing to do with Reliance Infocomm "� it's run by three Mumbai-based businessmen, Imtiaz Hami, Jitendra Jain and Mahendra Hemdev), karnavati.net (promoted by the Ahmedabad-based Rekha and Suresh Shahdadpuri "� from which you can send 15 SMS free but have to pay after that), shalygifts.com.

All worked fairly well "� we sent SMS to mobile phones and they arrived pretty quickly. But an SMS sent from krify.com, another Indian site, took quite some time to arrive.

When you send a message through a portal, it is forwarded to cellular service companies as email. The cellular service companies, in turn, deliver the message as an SMS.

How do the portals make money from free SMS? They don't. A spokesperson for IndiaMobiles.com, which is a search engine, explains that the free SMS service is meant to attract subscribers.

Even so, Shailaja's point is broadly correct in one respect at least. The days of sending free SMS from web sites are drawing to a close.

Some six months ago, cellular service companies banded together and decided that they would not allow an SMS to terminate on their networks unless the site from which the SMS was sent paid a minimum of 30 paise per SMS.

Explains an executive at a mobile services company who does not wish to be identified: "Subscribers complained that they were being flooded with spam." Evidently, many US and Indian companies resorted to SMS to mass market products.

How then do the current crop of free SMS sites beat the cellular service companies? Some pay them (60 paise per SMS), others don't. A spokesman for one of them privately confessed that of the 10,000 SMS sent every day, 2,000 are not delivered.

That's because the cellular service companies change their IP addreses. His site, he said, then hacks into the new IP address. And so the game goes on.

In the internet revolution's heyday, several internet companies offered free SMS in their pursuit of eyeballs. Some websites used to pay telecom service providers for this; others used to barter advertisements and make promotional offers for tie ups to send free emails.

Today most web sites are demanding cash upfront or making subscribers earn credits (a roundabout way of paying for SMS) before they can send SMS.

"In India a combination of factors helped make this service popular, though for a short while," says a senior telecom company executive.

Web sites wanted to increase the number of eyeballs in a bid for higher valuations and telecom service providers wanted to popularise SMS, even if they lost revenue, because this was a service that could be milked in the long run.

For those who did not own cellphones, this was a quick way of reaching someone who had one. Mind you, at that time incoming calls attracted a charge for cellphone users, but incoming SMS did not.

But today the telecom industry's economics have changed dramatically. Rentals are lower, incoming calls are free and most mobile service subscribers don't mind using their mobile phones to send SMS. Why then send an SMS through a portal?

Well, sometimes it's still worthwhile doing so, especially if you're a heavy SMS sender. For one, it's easier to use a computer to key in your message and you key it on a larger screen too. For another, it can be cheaper to send large volumes of SMS through a portal than on your mobile phone.

Consider Bennett Coleman & Company's Indiatimes.com, which recently launched an SMS service for its subscribers. You pay Rs 7 for sending 10 SMS through the site "� or 70 paise per SMS sent to anyone in the world. In contrast, an intra circle mobile phone SMS costs Re 1; an SMS to anywhere else in India costs Rs 2 and a international SMS costs Rs 5.

For business or large volume users, in particular, sending SMS from a portal is still a viable proposition. You can set up an address book of your contacts and send group text messages.

Perhaps recognising just this, several international sites are flourishing, charging for sending an SMS. Two examples: Txttools (www.txttools.co.uk), which charges 12 p per SMS; one2many (http//sms.lycos.co.uk/mobile) which charges 5 p per SMS, the cost going down as the volume goes up.

Indeed, SMS marketing is big business in the UK. The London-based MindMatics Ltd advertises itself as a full service provider of mobile marketing and technology solutions and boasts of a database of six million subscribers in Europe who have given explicit permission to receive marketing messages.

Undoubtedly, SMS marketing will be big business in India too "� even if individuals won't get a free ride anymore.