Soon  Train passengers will be able to use their mobile phones to book tickets using SMS that is  text-messaging-based facility or a menu-based dialling service(USSD) from July 1. This can be used with even simple feature phones to smartphones. There is no need for an internet connection and customers will not have to pay any data charges.

The IRCTC said that it has provided a simple user-guided menu to book tickets, search stations and check the availability of berths."A dedicated telephone number will soon be provided to carry out the transactions,"
For the SMS-based ticket service, customers need to register with their banks to generate Mobile Money Identifier (MMID), a seven-digit random number. For the menu-based USSD system, there is no need to register with the bank and payment can be authorized through a mobile wallet.

Six berths or seats can be booked in a single transaction through the new systems.SMS charge for booking will be Rs 3. Apart from this there will be gateway charge of Rs 5 upto ticket of Rs 5000 and for ticket above Rs 5000 there will be charge for Rs 10

Procedure for Booking

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India regualtion (TRAI) has issued this directive in wake of  complaints from consumers about missed calls from international telephone numbers which are often premium numbers charging high tariff, prompting the consumers to make call to such numbers.TRAI has asked to de-activate the international calling facility in prepaid numbers and restore it only after a subscriber gives his explicit consent to avail this facility.
TRAI said it has also been receiving complaints from consumers about receiving calls and SMSes from international numbers informing them about winning of prizes or lottery and prompting consumers to call a particular number to claim the prize or lottery money.
 According to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India regualtion it says to inform all pre-paid subscribers having ISD facility, through SMS, within 10 days of the date of issue of this direction, that ISD facility of the subscribers shall be discontinued after sixty days,"
If subscribers want to continue with ISD facility, they should give their explicit consent for availing such facility within 60 days of the receipt of the SMS,from there operator

The regulator has asked telecom operators to inform subscribers through SMS, within 10 days of the direction, that pre-paid cellular mobile telephone service consumers need not respond to all missed calls from unknown international numbers or calls about winning prizes or lottery.

Gmail users can now send and receive their emails via their feature phones.
However, this service will currently be available in Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya only but is likely to be launched in other regions later. It will help the search giant reach out to a larger audience in countries which do not have much mobile internet penetration.

According to  Google Africa's blog it says, "Gmail SMS automatically forwards your emails as SMS text messages to your phone and you can respond by replying directly to the SMS.Users can control the emails through commands like More, Pause and Resume.  They can create new mails via SMS and send the same to any email address. This email will be automatically placed in the correct conversation thread.
This feature require a feature phone with basic voice and SMS features in order to make full use of this service. Users can activate this service by modifying the settings in their Gmail accounts and registering their phone numbers with Google.

Check out www.mobikwik.com The latest in mobile solutions, it allows you to recharge your mobile with a true flexi recharge for any denomination including the internet recharge and SMS.On this site you can create your mobile wallet that mean it will act as repository for your currency.This wallet can be used to recharge mobile using SMS. You can recharge your mobile or your friends mobile using this wallet by SMS or Online. You can also recharge any mobile without creating wallet,you can recharge directly from you bank account.

• Mobikwik Balance is your e-wallet.
• Add to your mobikwik balance and Recharge any phone from Web or SMS.
• Set a date and we will recharge for you automatically using mobikwik balance.
• Recharge for your add on phones. You can add upto 20 numbers to your account and recharge for them using SMS or Web.

Best feature that I liked is Schedule Recharge and even you recharge special Bonus cards,Special Tariff Vouchers
Schedule Recharge

1. Set a date and we will automatically send you recharge for the amount specified by you.
2. You can cancel scheduled recharges for a number anytime.
3. Remember you must have enough Mobikwik Balance for us to send you Recharge.

Recently a Pune based mobile application development firm Optinno Mobitech Pvt. Ltd. announced the launch of first of its kind mobile application - Mobiwatchman - which can help its users to get rid of unwated calls and SMS.

Mobiwatchman is available for only mobile phones that run on Symbian OS. Click here to know if your mobile is compatible with Mobiwatchman.
You can also try Mobiwatchman by downloading the trial version. It is a full featured version with 25 SMS blocks. It can be downloaded from www.mobiwatchman.com

 

Mobiwatchman is a smart application that works in your mobile and blocks calls and SMS as per your settings. This application runs silently in the background so that regular mobile phone tasks are not affected.

Actual screenshots shown below will help you understand its functioning.

		After successful installation, you can see Mobiwatchman’s icon in the installation folder or the location where you have installed it.

Have you ever checked your mobile balance or activated some service using such code like *121# or *111# or *777# ? Did you ever thought what is these service called. These are called USSD

Unstructured Supplementary Services Data (USSD) allows for the transmission of information via a GSM network. Contrasting with SMS, it offers real time connection during a session. A USSD message can be upto 182 alphanumeric characters in length. Unstructured Supplementary Service Data allows interactive services between a MS and applications hosted by the Mobile Operator. These messages are composed of digits and the #, * keys, and allow users to easily and quickly get information/access services from the Operator.

USSD messages are simple to form and easy to send. User can directly enter the ussd string and press call to send the message. A typical USSD message starts with a * followed by digits which indicate an action to be performed or are parameters. Each group of numbers is separated by a *, and the message is terminated with a #. The USSD gateway in turn can interact with external applications based on the USSD command. This allows access to number of value added services via USSD.

USSD is a session oriented service, and can support a sequence of exchange of information. Phase 2 USSD also allows messages to be pushed onto a MS. It is several times faster than MO SMS messages since there is no store and forward of messages. The USSD gateway supports an open HTTP interface.

The USSD gateway will have an interface with the MSC over SS7. It uses MAP to receive and send USSD data from the HLR.

Generally the USSD functionality is implemented in the following modes:

• Pull Mode, will handle Mobile Initiated USSD Requests.
• Push Mode will handle network Initiated USSD Requests.

Steps to Create SMS alerts

1)Login to your Orkut account and move to your scrapbook or Community
Copy the URL of Scrapbook or Community (e.g. http://www.orkut.co.in/Main#Community.aspx?cmm=1XXXXXX
http://www.orkut.com/Scrapbook.aspx?uid=20XXXXXX
http://www.orkut.com/CommMsgs.aspx?cmm=19587001&tid=25XXXXXXX

2)Now Create Feeds for your Scrapbook URL or Community URL with www.orkutfeeds.com

3)Burn your Orkut feeds URL with Feedburner(http://www.feedburner.google.com) or
add “#both” at the end of the above URL that you get generating from www.OrkutFeed.com

4)Create an SMS Channel with burned Feedburner URL for your Scrapbook or Community with Google Sms Channel
Fill all the required details and feed URL of your Orkut page (refer step 2) on the ‘RSS/Atom feed’ form and finally hit the ‘create channel’ button.

That’s it! Now you’ll be getting scrap notifications via SMS for life

Los Angeles Times has an article on why text messages are limited to 160 characters. Read the abstract below.

In 1985, Friedhelm Hillebrand of Bonn, Germany and a dozen others had been laying out the plans to standardize a technology that would allow cellphones to transmit and display text messages. Because of tight bandwidth constraints of the wireless networks at the time, each message would have to be as short as possible.

Hillebrand has conducted an informal study using his typewriter on how many characters are required on an average to express a sentence or question, by typing out random sentences and questions on a sheet of paper. He counted the number of letters, numbers, punctuation marks and spaces on the page, and came to a conclusion that each blurb ran on for a line or two and nearly always clocked in under 160 characters. That became the magic number which set the standard for one of text messaging.

Friedhelm Hillebrand was the chairman of the nonvoice services committee within the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM). He pushed forward the group’s plans in 1986 and all the cellular carriers and mobile phones must support the short messaging service (SMS).

The committee took the assumption based on other two factors: For one, they found that postcards often contained fewer than 150 characters. Second, they analyzed a set of messages sent through Telex, a then-prevalent telegraphy network for business professionals. Despite not having a technical limitation, Telex transmissions were usually about the same length as postcards. The committee finally decided on the 160 character length for text messages.

Read the full article at LA Times

It’s easy to forget, and now its easy to remind also. Google has now enabled password recovery through SMS service, which make sure that only you can access your account. So if you forget your password, you can reset it using a recovery code which Google send in a text message to your mobile phone.

According to Google, following mobile carriers supports account recovery via SMS in India.

* Aircel Cellular Limited
* Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited
* Bharti Airtel Limited
* BPL Mobile Communications Limited
* IDEA Cellular Limited
* Reliance Telecom Limited
* Spice Communications Limited
* Vodafone

This Service is now available in India

To set up password recovery via your mobile phone, just sign in to your account and click Change Password Recovery Options. Select your country if listed in the drop down, enter your mobile phone number and current password and then click Save. If you lose access to your account for any reason, you’ll be able to regain access by entering a code Google send in a text message.

To send yourself a recovery code via SMS, enter your username on the password-assistance page. After completing the word verification, you’ll receive confirmation that Google has sent a code to your phone. Keep this page open so you can get to the page where you enter your code. Check your phone for a text message from Google. Enter your recovery code and click Submit recovery code. Type your new password. And now your new password is in effect.

Few days ago Way2Sms launched email to sms service which sends an sms whenever you get a new email. Netcore Solutions, which brought the most popular MyToday free SMS update service also launched email2sms service. Get a free account at http://email2sms.netcore.co.in & start receiving alerts for each email you get. Email2SMS also has options to read complete email, reply, forward, compose new email etc. Since this is a SMS based system, user doesn’t require GPRS service or a phone with GPRS ability. This should work fine on all the mobile phones which have SMS functionality. Though receiving messages is free, you might be charged Rs.3 to Rs.5 for sending messages since it uses premium number. Few of the commands for using this service are provided below:

Now there is no way you can miss a route in Bangalore with hi-tech service vying for space .Bangalorean can now get direction guide with on there plam just by sending SMS

Visit www.latlong.in
http://www.vidteq.com
http://www.btis.in
http://www.mapmyindia.com

SMS code if you want to find out SBI near to MADIVALA then just send code WHERE SBI NEAR MADIVALA
Similary if you want to know route from MADIVALA to WHITEFIELD then SMS GO MADIVALA to WHITEFIELD send to 9008890088(LATLONG Service)

http://www.videq.com has its own USP ,it provides Viedo graphic direction guide apart form 2 D maps .you can get direction over cell using and also you can downnload the direction viedo


http://www.btis.in is banglore traffic guide here u can get direction ,road maps ,mostinportant you can get bus route and bus number by just providing from and to destination. You can get Live view of Traffic by Traffic cameras installed at different Signal

Many mobile phone users say the number of ads being sent to their phones has increased sharply. In the months to come, the numbers could go up many times more. The trouble is, the ads tend to be spams, trying to sell everything — from property to baby clothes — to everybody. Naturally, users are beginning to protest.
But now, developers of mobile phone applications are beginning to work on solutions that incentivise users to accept ads. IMImobile is doing a pilot project with a telecom operator that seeks to come to the aid of prepaid users who run out of talk-time and need to make urgent calls. The user will need to send an SMS to a designated number or dial up an interactive voice response system. The system will recognize the number and play ads, depending on the user profile. After playing one or two ads, the user will be prompted to punch in the number he desires to call and the system will connect him to the third party. It’s the reward for having listened to those ads. “The talktime is pre-determined and can be customized as per client requirement,” says Sudarshan Dharmapuri, VP for product management in IMImobile.
OnMobile has ad ring back tones (AdRBT). When a user gets a call, the caller will be presented with audio ads, which is personalized as per his/her profile. The platform has a unique call-to-action feature which allows interested users to respond to the advertisement instantly with the click of a single key. Users who have subscribed to Ad RBT will receive special discounts and offers from the operator to participate in this programme.
“The mobile advertising space is nascent but with such targeted advertising, it is scalable and promising. There needs to be more promotional and awareness activities,” says Pratapa Bernard, head of marketing & products in OnMobile. The ads are available in 10 languages and are played in a language based on the location of the caller. mGinger pays users to receive mobile ads via SMS. Users get 20 paise for each ad. Users also get 10 paise for referring friends and relatives and 5 paise for every ad their friends referrals receive. Once a subscriber accumulates rs 300 in his account, mGinger issues a cheque to him. A recent survey by consultancy firm KPMG found that Indian consumers are open to receiving ads in exchange for free content. The survey saw nearly 80% of users interested in free music downloads in exchange for listening to mobile advertisements.
Vodafone Essar launched a service earlier this year that gets you a caller tune free if you allow every fourth call to be an ad call. The tune will otherwise cost you Rs 30 a month. “Right now it is mostly the FMCG companies —- Cadbury, Coke — who are using the service,” says K Sankara Narayanan, CEO of Vodafone Essar. The service today has 15,000 to 20,000 users subscribed for it. “With a 71 million plus subscriber base and each subscriber receiving an average of 10 incoming calls per day, a penetration of 4-5% on ad RBT makes it the single most powerful marketing medium on the mobile in the country,” says Narayanan.
The mobile advertising market is currently about Rs 50 crore and is estimated by some to grow to Rs 500 crore by 2011. Some of the other companies trying mobile advertising are CitiFinancial Consumer Finance India, Max New York Life Insurance, Reebok, Rolex, Nike and Bingo chips.

visit http://160by2.com and get register your mobile and send FREE SMS within INDIA and as well as

,Kuwait,UAE,Saudi,Singapore,Philippines & Malaysia