Mobile & Cell Phone Information

How Reliable are Cell Phones


Cellular phones and pagers are part of the "now" generation, instant contact, anywhere at any time. People are looking for convenience, comfort and security. The question is how instantaneous and reliable is the contact?

Talking with someone is the main use for a cell phone, yet due to poor reception how often do calls not go through, or important calls "dropped" due to flaky coverage? Let us not forget, that in a time of tragedy, lines were congested and the resounding "all circuits busy" messages were heard from coast to coast. There is certainly room for improvement if you want to reach out and touch someone.

The alternative to voice communication is traditional text messaging, enjoyed by the young as SMS, a 'hip' communication method, and the older as the tried and true paging, a trustworthy means of communication. A carrier receives pages or text messages via a traditional dial up modem or Internet connection to their terminal, and then broadcasts the messages over their network to the appropriate wireless device. How instant is sending a text message? The answer might surprise you...it depends.

Traditional means of sending text messages is surprisingly reliable and fast. However, many cellular carriers, wishing to merge technologies while keeping costs down, have opted to utilize email technology to send text messages. Why not, an email is nothing more than a text message, using the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). On the surface this sounds like a great idea, nearly everyone has email access, and the use of the Internet streamlines the sending of messages.

What is often overlooked, is the fact that email was not designed to be time sensitive. There can be significant delays and an instantaneous receipt can be lost when sending email to a pager or cell phone. Text messages sent via the email protocol SMTP could take a more scenic delivery route. While in many cases, receiving messages in a timely fashion is not critical; some industries require and benefit from the receipt of urgent messages. It is therefore important to realize and make a distinction between the protocols that are designed for instantaneous communication and those that are not.

If sending messages immediately to a cell phone or pager is required, more reliable protocols are available. When sending text messages, via a modem, the Telocator Alphanumeric Protocol (TAP) is extremely dependable, albeit slower due to the modem dialing. If sending messages with a high-speed Internet connection use the newer time sensitive Internet protocols: Simple Network Paging Protocol (SNPP) and Wireless Communication Transfer Protocol (WCTP). If your carrier supports these protocols they are the better options for sending important messages.

If carriers understand the "now" generation is about speed and reliability, customer satisfaction will improve. Text messaging is a reliable and useful communication method, especially since voice is not always convenient or possible. With public awareness and urging, carriers will increase their offerings of text messaging protocols. Carriers should offer email or SMTP, but they must also support time sensitive protocols, regardless, of whether the protocols are older such as TAP or newer such as WCTP.

Resources -

Carriers supporting SNPP - http://www.notepage.net/snpp.htm

Carriers supporting WCTP - http://www.notepage.net/wctp.htm

About The Author

Sharon Housley manages marketing for NotePage, Inc. http://www.notepage.net a company specializing in alphanumeric paging, SMS and wireless messaging software solutions. Other sites by Sharon can be found at http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com , and http://www.small-business-software.net


MORE RESOURCES:

Sydney Morning Herald (blog)

Lara Bingle Love Affair Scandal Picture Found on Lost Mobile Cell Phone
Newsolio (blog)
... Bingle that set off a full blown tabloid media scandal was not distrubuted by him, but landed in the media after his mobile cell phone went missing. ...
Lara Bingle Mobile Phone MMS Photo Scandal DevelopmentsNewsolio (blog)
Lara Binge Bikini Model Picture Scandal HypocrisyNewsolio (blog)
Lara Bingle Shower Photo Controversy, Aussie Football Star in Hot Water for ...Newsolio (blog)

all 610 news articles »


be Mobile to facilitate ministry service
Botswana Press Agency
GABORONE - The be Mobile cell phone bulk short message service (sms) shall facilitate information dissemination to the customers concerning the collection ...



Best Mobiles – A Blog for people interested in mobile phone features and cell ...
I-Newswire.com (press release) (blog)
(I-Newswire) March 18, 2010 - A new blog on mobile phones has recently been launched. This blog caters the needs of the online users who are interested in ...

and more »


CTIA-The Wireless Association Statement on House Ways & Means Committee Mark ...
Business Wire (press release)
“While we understand why the amendment had to be withdrawn at this time, we are eager to get the MOBILE Cell Phone Act enacted as soon as possible this year ...

and more »


NYT: The Russians are coming! The Russians are coming!
ZDNet (blog)
Mobile - Cell phone service apparently crashed from overload. The New York Time article highlights how close the HG Wells production followed (albeit ...

and more »


Radio World

Peter King, (Almost) Live From Haiti
Radio World
Then T-Mobile cell phone service followed on my BlackBerry, which had been activated specially for the Haiti trip. Getting the story back to New York and on ...



The Star-Ledger - NJ.com

NJ dad battles T-Mobile over calls charged to daughter's phone
The Star-Ledger - NJ.com
Abeigon has supported the bills for her T-Mobile cell phone service since she was a teen. All was well until Alida's Sidekick phone started acting up in the ...



City leaders axe cell tower at Huntington Beach church
OCRegister
The residents' concerns mirror the outcry last year over proposed T-Mobile cell phone towers at Bolsa View and Harbour View parks. ...

and more »


Topsham neighborhood says no to cell phone tower
WCSH-TV
Once complete, the tower would be home to a T-Mobile cell phone transmitter. Mariners' Development Officer, Chris Ciolfi, says the cell phone company had ...

and more »


Funny Internet Cell Phone Track Prank Spreads on Twitter and Facebook
Jazzou (blog)
Members are 'tweeting' the very official looking mobile cell phone tracker website to followers to hopefully catch each other out. ...


Google News

home | site map
© 2006