Comverse tackles SMS spam

Comverse is getting into the spam protection business, announcing this week it is adding a spam-detection and-blocking solution to its portfolio of messaging products.

The ISMS Shield is a stand-alone product designed to integrate with Comverse’s Intelligent Short Message Service Center or another vendor’s standards-based SMSC.

While Spam hasn’t been a huge problem over wireless networks, industry observers expect the PC world’s biggest nuisance to soon bleed over to wireless networks. “Mobile phone spam greatly concerns operators since it can lead to revenue leakage, churn and regulatory sanctions,” Comverse multimedia applications group president Uri Arad said in a statement.

The possibility of mass unsolicited mailing over the network presents numerous problems to wireless carriers, Arad said. Not only is it network traffic a carrier can’t collect revenue from, it clogs network resources as SMSCs get bombarded with mass mailings. Possibly even more significantly, wireless users have come to expect their phones to be relatively spam free, even though their PC inboxes are stuffed with junk mail. Particularly with customers who have to pay per message when receiving SMS, junk mail could cause customers to switch carriers.