Text Message The World
If you are a GSM subscriber in the US chances are pretty good that you can already exchange text messages with other GSM subscribers around the world. But if you are on a CDMA or TDMA network you are still limited to the US market. That's starting to change as inter-carrier messaging specialist InphoMatch is working with T-Mobile UK to allow text messaging between non-GSM US operators. T-Mobile UK is probably just the first carrier and others will follow down the line. What will be interesting is if the US operators actually market this feature. The US GSM carriers don't officially market or support international SMS. People tend to just try it and find out that it works. So far I don't know of any US carriers that currently charges a premium for international text message, but with the right marketing that could be a good little business. Carriers could target particular nationalities that like to stay in touch with home countries where SMS is already popular like the UK, Germany, the Philippines, Singapore and Taiwan.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team