InfoSpace plans to help SMS explode in the Americas

InfoSpace has the key that will let wireless carriers in North America and South America unlock the potential revenue streams from providing two-way, short message service (SMS)-based offerings, according to an official for mobile Internet service provider.

Two-way SMS services are popular in Europe, where they are easier to deploy because all carriers use the GSM standard. Two-way messaging in the Western Hemisphere is trickier, because interoperability between various standards--GSM, TDMA, CDMA and IDEN--is needed to make the service useful to consumers.

InfoSpace has solved this puzzle and plans to help U.S. wireless carriers deploy interoperable, two-way, SMS services, said Dave Mercer, chief SMS engineer at InfoSpace, during a conference call yesterday.

“In the U.S., wireless-carrier networks were only capable of handling one-way SMS for a long time,” he said. “Now we are helping, [our carrier partners] to monetize from two-way technology.”

Two-way technology is becoming more common, with AT&T and Verizon having launched services, he said.

Until recently, there were not any solutions to help U.S. wireless carriers move beyond one-way SMS services, Mercer said. In addition, carriers’ have focused primarily on wireless Internet applications, not SMS, he said.

“The reason it has been slow is that last year was all about WAP. Now, carriers realize a lot of value can be added by launching two-way,” Mercer said.

InfoSpace is confident it is one of the few companies able to help wireless carriers in the U.S. and abroad transition to two-way SMS capabilities because of its pre-established relationships with them.

“We believe our solution is superior because, by maintaining a direct connection to carriers’ [short message service centers], we are able to deliver a higher-quality user experience,” Mercer said.

InfoSpace has one-way SMS relationships with some of the largest carriers in the United States, including AT&T, Verizon, Cingular and VoiceStream. The company believes its existing connectivity into the SMS gateways of these leading carriers positions it to provide advanced SMS-based services--for example, network-independent text messaging, voice provisioning, micro payments, ring tones, screensavers, and interactive gaming--to generate new revenue from messaging.

Advanced SMS services are expected to allow consumers to set up personalized alerts, which they will be able to configure via an HTML browser on a PC. Also services will not be limited to mobile handsets; instead they could be delivered to any type of device, Mercer said.

“One-way SMS has proven to be popular, but two-way offers more benefits,” he said. “Two-way SMS can allow carriers to offer fast, easy-to-access to sticky applications like online gaming, entertainment guides and online banking.”

In addition, InfoSpace wants to help carriers offer differentiated two-way SMS services. “The services will be unique, because they will be able to be delivered to almost any phone or device, not just those with WAP,” he said.

“This is because subscribers will receive messages within seconds and can reply to messages directly,” which is unlike one-way SMS technology, he added.