m-Travel.com and Travel Distribution News

Archive Category: SMS

Orange offers 2-way SMS 'find nearest' service

By Ken Smith | Editor, SmartTravelNews.com

LONDON -- Let's say that you're new to the city, or lost, or too far into the evening, and you are trying to find just one more place to party. If you are a subscriber to the UK's Orange mobile phone service, all you have to do is send the one-word text message "pub" to the Orange SMS short code 300, then a wireless navigation and location-based services system powered by Webraska will fix your location and reply with a text message telling you of the nearest pub.

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Mobile wake-up call to the travel industry

By Mike Grenville | 160characters.org

"Don't wait for 3G," said Vodafone, calling on the travel industry to take advantage of the mobile technology that is already there and that consumers are using. "SMS is the prevailing communications method of this millenium so far and the travel industry can no longer afford to ignore it," was the view from Vodafone at EyeforTravel's European Travel Distribution Summit in London last week.

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Show tickets sold on mobile phone in Singapore

TEL AVIV -- Worldwide, there are 300 million people use the Internet, but some 500 million pack a mobile phone. With these numbers in mind, the Israeli company RegiSoft has been developing ticket sales on mobile devices, and now the first such wireless transaction system is up and running in Singapore. RegiSoft announces the successful completion of the first show offering ticket sales using mobile devices at Esplanade Theatres on the Bay, Singapore’s national performing arts center, selling all the tickets allocated to using this revolutionary method.

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Mobile credit card authentication to be developed

TORONTO -- Arcot Systems Inc., a provider of systems for securing digital identities, and Diversinet, a provider of secured mobile solutions, have jointly agreed to develop and co-market systems for mobile authentication of online credit card transactions.

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Air2Web offers new instant messaging product

ATLANTA -- While the travel industry has been somewhat slow in embracing wireless technology during the current global economic slump, some experts are saying that instant messaging (IM) could be the application that gets the ball rolling. Air2Web, a leading wireless platform provider, has launched a new product called 2IM, which the company says is the market's first mobile instant messaging (IM) solution to integrate popular public and corporate IM services.

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Travel seller lastminute.com offers SMS newsletter

LONDON -- European online travel seller lastminute.com has contracted with InfoSpace to provide an SMS newsletter service for mobile phone users. The weekly newsletter will be used by lastminute.com as a marketing tool to increase sales from customers visiting its web and WAP portals. 

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Less voice, more data seen for wireless profits

NEW ORLEANS -- As mobile operators and vendors gather this week at CTIA Wireless 2003, the trade show held by the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association, analysis and consulting company Ovum sees merit in their strategy to decrease their reliance on voice revenues in favor of data services such as short text messages (SMS), wireless multimedia (MMS) and wireless instant messages (IM). 

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Air of optimism and new technology at 3GSM

By Mike Grenville | CEO, 160Characters Association

CANNES, France -- With 26,000 attendees nearly 600 vendors at the 3GSM World Congress last week, it was hard for it not to make an impression. Just making sense of what was where and happening when was the first challenge for such a large event with 576 vendors from 35 countries, spanning five halls and 25,000 square meters.

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Blogging software for mobile phones launched

By Ken Smith | Editor, SmartTravelNews.com

CANNES, France -- Text messaging and taking and sending small-file photos with a mobile phone are not yet popular in the United States, but much of the rest of the world is wildly enthusiastic. If the exhibits and talk in the aisles at the 3GSM World Congress this week are an indication of the next big thing, then we may soon see many new applications in handheld mobile communications. The mobile phone is not just for voice any longer.

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Wireless navigation, mapping product launched

GOTHENBURG, Sweden -- Wayfinder Systems, a global provider of wireless navigation, mapping and traffic information services and technologies, launched its new Wayfinder wireless navigation product at Comdex Scandinavia this week. Itinerary Systems changed the company name to Wayfinder Systems last week.

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InfoSpace 'terminates' Naveen Jain as CEO

BELLEVUE, Washington -- In a harshly worded announcement issued on a Saturday, the board of directors of InfoSpace said that Naveen Jain, the company's founder, had been "terminated" and board member Jim Voelker would become chairman and CEO "effective immediately." No additional information was given by the company, a provider of wireless and Internet software and applications.

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Young Americans sending more mobile messages

SAN FRANCISCO -- The current marketing of new next-generation mobile handsets in the United States is likely to drive increased adoption and usage of mobile messaging services, such as SMS, according to a new study by Telephia, a leading provider of marketing and service quality intelligence to the mobile industry. Young American subscribers, who have doubled their text messaging usage in the past year, are positioned to lead the way in handset upgrades and will continue to drive usage in an area that is becoming a crucial new revenue source for the industry.

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Study finds trend toward simple wireless services

LOS ANGELES -- Telecom experts generally believe that information on demand and services that increase user convenience and efficiency are more promising avenues than entertainment on a wireless device, according to a new report by the Center for Telecom Management at the University of Southern California (USC) Marshall School of Business. The experts were not optimistic about m-commerce within the next year, citing obstacles like pricing, infrastructure deployment, and the need for new devices as a few of the challenges that need addressing before the potential of m-commerce can be realized.

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Gulf Air uses Sabre's SMS traveler notification

BAHRAIN -- Gulf Air is launching Sabre's Inform wireless notification technology that will give its passengers real-time information about their trip 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The system, the latest product of Gulf Air's enhanced customer-focused strategy, will be provided by SMS (Short Message Service) to customers' mobile phones and e-mail. Gulf Air will be the first airline in the Middle East to introduce such technology.

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Wificom, Radionet to provide city-wide WLANs

HELSINKI -- Wificom, a pan-European software provider for WLAN service management products, and Radionet, provider of city-wide wireless broadband networks, have formed a partnership to produce and sell intelligent city-wide WLAN networks that allow any visitor to have an instant Internet access within the network coverage area.

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Sabre launches mobile customer services

SOUTHLAKE, Texas -- Sabre Holdings today announced the launch of Sabre Inform mobile services, a suite of customer service tools intended to reduce costs associated with call center management and customer service for both airlines and the North American travel agent community by keeping them connected with their travelers.

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Air2Web offers corporate multimedia messaging

ATLANTA -- Air2Web has successfully integrated its Mobile Internet Platform with Nokia's Multimedia Messaging Center (MMSC) that enables sending multimedia messages from the company's Atlanta-based servers to Nokia Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) servers located in Dallas and Hong Kong. 

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Survey finds women like mobile text messaging

IRVINE, Calif. -- In a recent national survey of tech-savvy consumers, women emerged as a driving force behind the growing popularity of two-way wireless short-text messaging service.

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Travel Incorporated goes wireless with Air2Web

ATLANTA --Travel Incorporated, the 23rd largest travel management company in the United States, has contracted with BellSouth's wireless alliance partner, Air2Web, for mobile Internet service, enabling customers to receive travel delays, changes, security warnings and their full travel itinerary on any SMS phone, PDA, or Web-enabled phone. 

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Florida students sign up for wireless coupons

TAMPA, Florida -- Since launching this Spring, over 700 University of South Florida (USF) students have signed up for and are using MoBull Messenger, a new free wireless discount coupons and notification service.

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Nokia sends Weather Channel text messages

IRVING, Texas -- Nokia and The Weather Channel are now offering wireless phone users text messages with  airport weather forecasts and average airport departure delays on their mobile phones. 

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Scan Mobile launches SMS-based ticketing

LONDON -- Scan Mobile, a provider of mobile applications and technology, has released TexTicket, an SMS-based mobile ticketing application. TexTicket allows users to check availability and purchase tickets using Short Message Service (SMS) on their mobile phone. 

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Wireless Knowledge launches desktop edition

SAN DIEGO -- Wireless Knowledge, a Qualcomm company, has released a new mobile groupware offering, Workstyle Desktop Edition. The new product allows individual business professionals to access their e-mail, calendar and contact information through the convenience of a mobile device. 

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Openwave releases WAP library for developers

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. -- Openwave Systems, a major producer of open IP-based communication infrastructure software and applications, has released its  Openwave WAP Push Library, Java Edition 1.0, to support the development of mobile applications.

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Study says SMS in Europe will continue to grow

AMSTERDAM -- New messaging technologies give users lower-price alternatives to expensive SMS, EMS, and MMS and will force operators to retool the value proposition of premium-priced messaging, according to a new report by Forrester Research. Messaging revenue will drop for the first time ever in 2004 as SMS traffic stabilizes at decreasing price points. Through 2007, the effective price per message of any type will face continued downward pressure, dropping 16% over five years.

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Tenzing showcases first in-flight two-way SMS

SEATTLE -- Tenzing Communications has announced the first successful live demonstration of airborne two-way short messaging service to mobile phones worldwide. Onboard a demonstration flight of a new Airbus 340-600 aircraft from Hong Kong to Los Angeles, David Trowern, engineering vice president of Tenzing, exchanged SMS messages with several friends and colleagues across the United States and the United Kingdom. 

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SMS and location-based services in travel

By Tim Gunstone | CEO, EyeforTravel

LONDON -- SMS, is becoming the killer app of the wireless world. Just as we saw with e-mail in the Internet revolution, it is the massive uptake of SMS that has taken the marketing world by surprise, and now is the time to exploit it. Everyone knows that SMS (Short Messaging Service) is the ability to send and receive text messages to and from mobile telephones.

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