Now, get SMS alerts free of cost!

[2kewl]

Nice...signed up for cricket and astrology

Visit http://www.mytodaysms.com/ for more info

Rediff

Rajesh S Kurup in Mumbai

February 01, 2008 10:31 IST

Heralding a sign of times to come, a mobile solutions provider has begun delivering SMS alerts free-of-cost to cellular users across the country. Other companies are expected to follow suit, resulting in making mobile services further affordable.

The company - Mumbai-based Netcore Solutions - provides around 20 SMS-based channels like news, Sensex, cricket, jokes, horoscope and Bollywood free-of-cost to subscribers, irrespective of the operator or the circle. Further, these services are available across all the 23 circles in the country.

SMS is the most used service on a mobile phone, next only to voice, and this has prompted the company to tap into the potential of the medium.

The company has launched free alerts for users and tied up with mobile operators to offer the service. Compare this with the existing practise in the industry, where a service provider levies a minimum of Rs 30 per month for each channel of SMS.

"The mobile phone is a true convergence device which would shortly replace the TV and the computer and text messaging is the most potent medium to reach large addressable audience in the shortest span of time," Abhijit Saxena, CEO, Netcore said.

Netcore Solutions is providing the service under its brand 'Mytoday Dailies' and is available on request. A user needs to subscribe to the service by sending an SMS to a pre-designated number (9845398453) with the text START followed by the name of service (Like NEWS or JOKES).

According to Saxena, registration is mandatory. Even though it is a

recently-launched service, the company sends out around 8 million SMSes per day to around 2.5 million subscribers. It is also adding around 20,000 new subscribers every day.

Currently, Netcore has limited the number of SMSes to two per channel per day � one in the morning and one in evening. This is based on customer surveys, said Saxena, adding there are no plans to increase the frequency, unless there is demand.


Netcore Solutions, which has a tech team of around 110 personnel working in Mumbai and Bangalore, is looking at recovering its expenses for providing the service through advertisements.

Below the text of the subscribed content, it provides advertisements and links to the websites of the advertisers. It has roped in Birla Sun Life Insurance, Tata Sky, Nokia, Prudential ICICI [Get Quote] and Moneycontrol.com among others as advertisers.

What next? As this service has become operational, the company is looking at concentrating on SMS-based mobile blogging and chat sessions.

[utsav]

Great

[Cool G5]

Cool.
I will subscribe too.

[casanova]

Great thing. I doubt will they use it for adverts as well

[Rockstar11]

^^^ +1 yep (FREE) lalach buri bala hai..

[ThinkFree]

Great news if they don't sell phone numbers

[hyde]

thanx for the update....

[victor_rambo]

Guess, such ventures will soon be flopped. Who will read the ad when you know that some body is desperately trying to catch your attention. Advertisers will soon realize this and back out. Its same as useful infor + solicited spam!

[cool_techie_tvm]

Its been some days since i registered over there. But am yet to receive any updates from there.

[Garbage]

Registered some months before...

Any way, thanks for info....

[cooldev007]

Really Great news if they don't sell phone numbers.

FREE

Unbeliveable.

[cool_techie_tvm]

Ok, now after a week of registration i started getting astrology updates. But i had registered for NEWS updates too...am yet to receive any of them..

[din]

Question :

What next? As this service has become operational, the company is looking at concentrating on SMS-based mobile blogging and chat sessions.

Answer :

Next -They get a very good database of valid mobile numbers. Enough for a telemarketer or spam sms sender. After the email spamming, now its SMS spam !

[eggman]

Originally Posted by din

Next -They get a very good database of valid mobile numbers. Enough for a telemarketer or spam sms sender. After the email spamming, now its SMS spam !

SMS spamming is there for quite a long time.........And I'm using this service for now 6 months......they never spammed me...............

[din]

No, I never meant any specific service. But you can see a lot of threads with - Send free sms, receive free sms etc. And all these will not be reliable and spam free. Afterall they will not do free service to all for ever. So my opinion is to stay away from such services.

[x3060]

you are right , it wont be free for ever with out any side effects . . am sure we will see mass spams in future for mob too . .

[kumarmohit]

All said and done, did anyone get any ads yet?

[2kewl]

Me getting updates every morning. No separate ads! They only have text ads at the end of the message...no links nothing.

[eggman]

Originally Posted by 2kewl

Me getting updates every morning. No separate ads! They only have text ads at the end of the message...no links nothing.

Yeah, its like that only from quite a long time. Thats what I like about this service.

[Tech.Masti]

sounds cool, but can we subscribe more than one service??

[Ricky]

Well may be they will add Adsense in sms later...
Ok.. that was a joke..

But they may include ads later on as few other similar provider do.. ie. reserver 40 char for ads.. etc..

[eggman]

Originally Posted by Tech.Masti

sounds cool, but can we subscribe more than one service??

Yup.........as much as you wish

[Tech.Masti]

^^Thanks

[tx5000]

i haven't received any sms even thogh i subscribed to it 3 days back.
I'm a reliance subscriber

[PCWORM]

Nice info thanx

[sudhir_mangla]

Service is good and working fine. I am getting 7-8 SMS daily

[Tech.Masti]

not good enough for me, msg is not regularly coming, subscribed for Cricket service, received msg on yesterday 8PM that Sri Lanka wins

[Champs]

service is not bad at 2 Rs. cost, i am receiving 3-4 for market and cricket alerts

[enticer86]

Originally Posted by Champs

service is not bad at 2 Rs. cost, i am receiving 3-4 for market and cricket alerts

U have to spend rs.2 Daily??