Nigeria - The Rise And Rise of Text Messaging

The rise and rise of text messaging is not only happened in one country but it is holding an important role for every country nowadays.

The world’s first social media of communication, the text messaging service, has been in existence for 19 years now. Over the years, many people have come to rely on it to communicate with friends and loved ones. Since 2001 when it was adopted in Nigeria following the introduction of the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) services, it has revolutionized communication, work and networking, along with fostering a different vocabulary. ADLINE ATILI writes on how 160 characters have transformed our communication pattern

Nineteen years ago today, no Nigerian owned a GSM phone, so Short Messaging Service(SMS)/text messaging was relatively unknown. That was around the period when we had to use landline phones and all its attendant problems. The subscriber base then was less than 400,000.

Text messaging has however, come a long way since the first text message was sent in December 1992, by a 22-year old test engineer for British technology company, Sema Group, Neil Papworth, on the Vodafone network in the United Kingdom.

Vodafone is the world’s largest mobile telecommunications company by revenues and the world’s second-largest by subscribers.

The text message was sent by Papworth, using a personal computer to Richard Jarvis of Vodafone Network who received it on an Orbitel 901 mobile phone.

The message read: “Merry Christmas,” and other than the lack of a punctuation mark, there isn’t much for linguists to complain about.

Today, that same message can be written as, ‘omg!!! Mrry xmas!’ Or what would life be without OMG, LOL, L8r, HBD, LLNP, HNM, and IJN?

While some may finger text messages for causing the demise of verbal communication, for many, the humble text is a quick route out of an unwanted chat.

An Airtel subscriber, Mary, said, as a student, texting has played a large part in her life. To her, though she tries not to text too much, she likes to text if she does not have time or enough airtime for a phone call.

She said: “Using text saves me some cash. Instead of going by voice, I just use text. If you call, the conversation can go on for long and it costs more.

“With texting, you can just say: ‘I’ll be in the library at eight’ and you’re done. If it is to the same network, you may not have to pay if it’s free on-net.”

How text messaging boosts operators’ revenue

Since the first text message, SMS technology has come a long way to dominate the current mobile messaging scene.

In 2010, SMS texts generated $114.6 billion in revenues worldwide, but many believe it’s just the beginning.

Today, text messaging is one of the most widely used mobile services. Over 74 per cent of all mobile phone users worldwide, employ it.

Since the beginning of this year, text messaging has generated $585 billion for operators worldwide and is expected to generate more than $1 trillion over the next seven years.

Experts estimate that mobile networks will earn $726 billion from SMS text messaging over the next five years.

Last year, the estimated volume of text messages/SMS sent was 6.1 trillion or 192,000 SMSs per second.

Since 2006, SMS’ worth has been netted at around $81 billion. So while smartphone applications like the BlackBerry Messenger starts to make up larger slices of the text messaging field, SMS is not giving up its mobile messaging throne anytime soon.

Though text messaging is 19, the technology behind the SMS text is 27-years old, having first been developed in the Franco-German GSM Corporation in 1984 by Friedhelm Hillebrand and Bernard Ghillebaert.

Why is text messaging limited to 160 characters?

Friedhelm Hillebrand, a communications researcher, conducted an experiment in 1985.

He sat with his typewriter and started typing random words and questions on a sheet of paper.

He counted the number of letters, punctuation marks and spaces for each line and realised that the number of characters were in and around 160.

That became Hillebrand’s magic number, and he somehow convinced the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) co-workers that 160 characters were more than sufficient for SMS.

Text messaging as marketing campaign tool

In today’s modern marketing world, SMS has become an avenue many businesses find great use for; especially with the popularity of promos, campaigns and bulk messaging which allows businesses and individuals send text messages at reduced price.

It is now commonplace for operators to ask subscribers to participate in promos by sending some words to ‘short codes,’ which are five to six digits phone numbers used for text message marketing campaigns.

Weak points

Despite being very successful, however, SMS services still face challenges globally. Security and vulnerability have been one of the major issues of SMS.

It has been used severally as a lethal weapon of threat and intimidation by criminally-minded individuals, prompting the Nigerian telecom industry regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to issue a directive to all telecom subscribers and network operators to get SIM cards registered.

The 50th Independence Anniversary celebrations of Nigeria were regrettably marred by bombings at the Federal Capital Territory in Abuja, last year.

The explosions left a good number of people dead with several others severely injured. Vehicles were not spared in the blasts as a number of them were destroyed.

About nine people were said to be arrested in connection with the bombings. When their mobile phones were said to be screened, some incriminating text messages were found, which pointed the finger at some individuals behind the bombings.

Only recently, Reuters reported how SMS text messages revealed how Nigerian politicians sponsor members of radical Islamic sects responsible for dozens of shootings and bombings across the country.

The report stated that Nigeria’s intelligence agency, the SSS, revealed in a press briefing how politicians pay extremists to send threatening text messages to judges and rival politicians.

One other thing is its unreliability, especially when the service is used for emergency purposes.

Several reported cases have shown that around one per cent to five per cent of text messages are lost in the network system, never to be received by the recipient.

But despite all these, SMS/text message has always been the most preferred mode of communication especially in emerging markets. Experts say its being cheap has been the main reason for its popularity.

Critics of the technology contend that it is destroying the brain cells of our youths, and some adults too.

Adeolu Adeyinka, a telecom subscriber, detests the ‘texting’ system, especially the adopted texting language.

He told The Nation: “I can only laugh at people who sit and text non-stop. When I see teenagers texting like mad, it doesn’t bother me so much but when grown men and women do it, I just wonder.

“The worst part is when you are having intelligent conversation with someone on the Internet and they only write in ‘texting format.’ It’s annoying and much as I accept text messages from my kids, I’ve warned them I won’t respond to messages with those texting words and phrases.

“I don’t like trying to decipher what those dumb words mean. I mean, it’s gradually destroying our youths.

“The other day, a friend of mine who happens to be a WAEC official told of how candidates have been so wrapped up in the texting language that they do not know how to write a single sentence in an essay without chipping in those dumb words two to three times.

“It’s really pathetic. I think the youths should be able to draw the line between sending text messages and writing an examination that can make or mar your future.”

Source by Adline Atili on Dec 15, 2011