Short Message Service (SMS - text messaging) is a huge phenomena in India. My mother's cell phone received a load of text messages over the last year. She is not tech savvy and never checks those messages. I had to go through them and delete all. The painful part is that there is no 'delete all' option. I have to open up messages to read and then get the menu option to delete. It is funny to see the variety of messages. Here is a sample from the bunch. I took a shot at categorizing them for fun.
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Number of Personal ads are more than double compared to other categories. The marketing guys obviously have no clue on the target segment. They are carpet bombing the masses with all sort of junk. Don't think they even study their success rate or ROI on these type of ads. Majority of providers in India offer free SMS option. So apparently these things cost nothing for anyone to send out. But it is a nuisance to the receivers. Unlike in email, there doesn't seem to be a "junk" mail box or filter option that will either block or remove these messages on the receiving end.
Even better blocking it at the source. Imagine how much junk SMS traffic is floating in the network that competes for bandwith with genuine messages and other wireless data exchange. For the Tata Photon+ wireless connection that I use in Madurai I am only getting 0.1 MBPS speed. That is terribly slow. I am sure these junk SMS messages contribute to the slowness of the net surfers, bloggers and other publishers.
I am not even sure if there is a "Do Not Text" registry of some sort. For the telephones in US, there is a "Do Not Call" registry to prevent tele-markerters from bothering you. If any of you know any such option for SMS in India, please share.
Number of Personal ads are more than double compared to other categories. The marketing guys obviously have no clue on the target segment. They are carpet bombing the masses with all sort of junk. Don't think they even study their success rate or ROI on these type of ads. Majority of providers in India offer free SMS option. So apparently these things cost nothing for anyone to send out. But it is a nuisance to the receivers. Unlike in email, there doesn't seem to be a "junk" mail box or filter option that will either block or remove these messages on the receiving end.
Even better blocking it at the source. Imagine how much junk SMS traffic is floating in the network that competes for bandwith with genuine messages and other wireless data exchange. For the Tata Photon+ wireless connection that I use in Madurai I am only getting 0.1 MBPS speed. That is terribly slow. I am sure these junk SMS messages contribute to the slowness of the net surfers, bloggers and other publishers.
I am not even sure if there is a "Do Not Text" registry of some sort. For the telephones in US, there is a "Do Not Call" registry to prevent tele-markerters from bothering you. If any of you know any such option for SMS in India, please share.
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1 comment:
I did find an option to block SMS messages. It is called NDNC registry. Callng 1909 from the cell phone enables the service. The service sends out a "CPR URN" number after the registration. Don't know what that means. Apparently the messages will stop after a week time. Awesome!
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