This Houston Chronicle article
(http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/1971965) discusses
the growing problem of SMS spam on cell phones. Two particular issues
jumped out at me. The first is the possibility that increased cell phone
spam will lead to people shuting off cell phones akin to email users
stopping to use email:
---snip----
Consumers receiving spam, like Merino, are beginning to turn off their cell
phones -- to the horror of cell phone companies. Companies are worried they
will lose customers because of spam, and most are taking a proactive stand
against it by setting up filters and working with federal authorities on
regulation. "If your customers are receiving messages they don't want, they
will turn off their phones, and that's bad for business," Larson said. "If
consumers turn off their phones, they won't be taking calls and they're
less likely to make calls. The fewer calls they make, the less revenue for
wireless carriers."
----snip----
The second being that the state of Texas might make SMS spam be covered
under the state's Do-Not-Call list:
----snip----
So far, the new rules in Texas apply to text spam sent from cell phone to
cell phone. However, Public Utilities Commission spokesman Terry Hadley
said the organization will review the new law and determine whether it will
include text spam transmitted through the Internet.
----snip---
This raises an interesting issue. There is no reason why cell phone
companies around the world could not have developed a separate messaging
framework NOT based on SMTP and email. However, they did and you can see
from this example the far reach of entrenched standards and how hard it
would be to replace SMTP or create a parallel secure email system.
Yakov
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