'Wireless Instant Messaging Is Faster & Cheaper Than SMS' by Mamuni Das
The Financial Express, Wednesday, May 07, 2003

New Delhi: ACL Wireless Limited is an wireless instant messaging application provider to mobile operators across Asia. Founded in early 2000, the company provides its solutions to operators in the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia and India. The company's chief executive officer Sanjay Goyal explains the concept of wireless instant messaging (WIM) among other things. Excerpts:

What is wireless instant messaging (WIM)?
Wireless instant messaging is basically a concept borrowed from the PC-world but targeted at the wireless or mobile world. Just like you have instant messaging over the Internet, WIM allows mobile phone owners to send and receive messages on a real time basis. While the 'senders category' in WIM primarily consist of mobile owners, the receivers on the other hand could receive their messages on a mobile or a personal computer or any e-mail account.

Additionally, another value addition provided by WIM is the fact that the sender can also send his message from his PC, through an e-mail account when his PC is right next to him by logging on to his telecom operators' website and by using a password.

It is important to remember that the common denominator in all the above devices which enables WIM is the Internet.

Why WIM, when SMS is already there as a messaging option? What is WIM's unique selling point?
Compared to short messaging service, WIM is a better service by being faster, cheaper and thus a superior technology. It's faster because it operates on a real-time basis unlike SMS which works on a store and forward basis.

Technically, it's superior because while using WIM on the mobile phones, unlike SMS, you can know about the present status of other people, that is whether they are 'online or offline or busy.' You also know as to what is the device that the receivers are using, whether they are on a mobile phone or on a PC. Again from the user perspective, one can send emoticons, attach pictures - it's nearer to a chat like experience that you have on PC. It is cheaper as it runs over the Internet protocol, which is an infrastructure that already exists. Thus, the user just pays the access charges. Putting it simply, when you send an e-mail, you don't pay for the e-mail, you just pay for the Internet access. Whereas when you send an SMS, you pay for sending each message.

Currently, messaging on mobile on the second generation mobile networks generally means SMS. WIM is taken as counterpart of SMS on GPRS ready or 2.5 G networks.

Who are the various players involved in providing WIM?
Those who are involved in the provision of WIM mainly include wireless or mobile operators, infrastructure providers, WIM application providers. The wireless operators are the service providers, they first decide whether they would provide WIM services or not. Then there are the infrastructure vendors, that provide the presence servers. The presence servers interface with the telecom layer or the telecom operators infrastructure at one end, and with the instant messaging application providers at the other end. The instant messaging application providers, in turn, act as the interface between user-end or the handset and the presence server.

Interestingly, nowadays, handset vendors are also becoming an important player by embedding software in the handsets.

How does each player derive advantage in WIM?
The telecom operators get advantage as they get to increase their GPRS (general packet radio service) penetration, which is the next big thing for the operators. Infrastructure vendors quite naturally gain from increased sales and application providers gain by earning license fees and/or set up costs and revenue share arrangements.

Generally, the application provider has a revenue sharing agreement as per which he gets a part of the revenue earned from the volume of traffic that goes through the application.