SMS

The rush to find new applications for the short message service (SMS) market has spawned one of the most unusual ideas in the local communications industry this year. DriverSMS, a system that uses car registration numbers as identification for SMS users, has been a surprise hit.

The company responsible for DriverSMS, the Sydney firm WAM Communications, has taken out a global patent on the system. John Greaves, a former director of the failed telecommunications company One.Tel, is an adviser to WAM, a marketing company that entered the SMS market after clients sought SMS services as a complement to Web services offered by the company.

The technology director at WAM, Jeff Ayling, says: "Nobody else has produced a service like this, and we think we have created a new market." Ayling says DriverSMS can be used by a driver who wants to contact another driver for any reason. The service requires that the registration of the target car is quoted and that the phone users in both cars have registered at WAM's Web site. Launched on October 18, the service attracted more than 10,000 registrations in the first two weeks.

Technology analysts are impressed by the innovative nature of the system, but they wonder about its business potential. A communications analyst at the management consultancy A.T. Kearney, Mark Higgins, says: "Australians are expected to send two billion SMS messages this year, and every new service adds to the richness and diversity of traffic. Something like DriverSMS is indicative of the kind of innovation that needs to go on in the early days of an industry. Having said that, I'm sceptical they will ever get enough people to register to make a genuine business."

There are two telecommunications companies that are believed to be talking to WAM about a joint venture to run the DriverSMS system. The listed electronics chain Strathfield Car Radio has agreed to advertise on the service for an undisclosed amount.

Ayling says the service is most likely to be used for fun and entertainment. "It would be a pretty good way to get a date." He rejects the suggestion that the SMS service would breach privacy laws or trigger incidents of road rage. Ayling says: "If a target car's mobile phone user has not registered with DriverSMS the message is stored in the receiver's mailbox, but they can't access it unless they sign up with us."

Arthur Hissey
Computer Research & Technology
www.crt.net.au