Services like 82ASK and Any Question Answered have used the PSMS model to enable rapid response to mobile consumers' questions, using on-call teams of experts and researchers. In November , amidst complaints about unsolicited charges on bills, major mobile carriers in the US agreed to stop billing for PSMS in 45 states, effectively ending its use in the United States.

Outside the United States, premium short messages are increasingly being used for "real-world" services. For example, some vending machines now allow payment by sending a premium-rated short message, so that the cost of the item bought is added to the user's phone bill or subtracted from the user's prepaid credits.

Recently, premium messaging companies have come under fire from consumer groups due to a large number of consumers racking up huge phone bills. A new type of free-premium or hybrid-premium content has emerged with the launch of text-service websites. These sites allow registered users to receive free text messages when items they are interested in go on sale, or when new items are introduced. An alternative to inbound SMS is based on long numbers international mobile number format, e. Additionally, long numbers are non-premium inbound numbers.

The use of text messaging for workplace purposes has grown significantly during the mids decade. As companies seek competitive advantages, many employees are using new technology, collaborative applications, and real-time messaging such as SMS, instant messaging , and mobile communications to connect with teammates and customers. Some practical uses of text messaging include the use of SMS for confirming delivery or other tasks, for instant communication between a service provider and a client e.

Several universities have implemented a system of texting students and faculties campus alerts. One such example is Penn State. One regulation specifically governing the use of text messaging in financial-services firms engaged in stocks, equities, and securities trading is Regulatory Notice , Supervision of Electronic Communications, December , issued to member firms by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority FINRA.

In Regulatory Notice , FINRA noted that "electronic communications", "e-mail", and "electronic correspondence" may be used interchangeably and can include such forms of electronic messaging as instant messaging and text messaging. Security, confidentiality, reliability, and speed of SMS are among the most important guarantees industries such as financial services, energy and commodities trading, health care and enterprises demand in their mission-critical procedures.

One way to guarantee such a quality of text messaging lies in introducing SLAs Service Level Agreement , which are common in IT contracts. By providing measurable SLAs, corporations can define reliability parameters and set up a high quality of their services.

In January , Mobile Marketing Association MMA published the Mobile Banking Overview for financial institutions in which it discussed the advantages and disadvantages of mobile channel platforms such as Short Message Services SMS , Mobile Web, Mobile Client Applications, SMS with Mobile Web and Secure SMS.

Mobile interaction services are an alternative way of using SMS in business communications with greater certainty. Typical business-to-business applications are telematics and Machine-to-Machine , in which two applications automatically communicate with each other.

Incident alerts are also common, and staff communications are also another use for B2B scenarios. Businesses can use SMS for time-critical alerts, updates, and reminders, mobile campaigns, content and entertainment applications.

Mobile interaction can also be used for consumer-to-business interactions, such as media voting and competitions, and consumer-to-consumer interaction, for example, with mobile social networking, chatting and dating.

Text messaging is widely used in business settings; as well, it is used in many civil service and non-governmental organization workplaces. The U. And Canadian civil service both adopted Blackberry smartphones in the s. Group texts involve more than two users. In some cases, when one or more people on the group text are offline, in airplane mode, or has their device shut down, a text being sent to the group may reveal an error message that the text did not go through.

Users should rest assured, that all online or available users on the group received the message and that re-sending the message will only result in some participants receiving the message multiple times.

There are a growing number of websites that allow users to send free SMS messages online. Some websites provide free SMS for promoting premium business packages. Europe follows next behind Asia in terms of the popularity of the use of SMS. In , an average of 16 billion messages was sent each month. Users in Spain sent a little more than fifty messages per month on average in In Italy, Germany and the United Kingdom, the figure was around 35—40 SMS messages per month. In the United Kingdom, text messages are charged between £0.

Curiously, France has not taken to SMS in the same way, sending just under 20 messages on average per user per month. France has the same GSM technology as other European countries, so the uptake is not hampered by technical restrictions. In the Republic of Ireland, 1. In , the Eurovision Song Contest organized the biggest televoting ever with SMS and phone voting. In Finland, which has very high mobile phone ownership rates, some TV channels began "SMS chat", which involved sending short messages to a phone number, and the messages would be shown on TV.

Chats are always moderated, which prevents users from sending offensive material to the channel. The craze evolved into quizzes and strategy games and then faster-paced games designed for television and SMS control. Games require users to register their nicknames and send short messages to control a character onscreen. Messages usually cost 0. In December , a Finnish TV channel, MTV3 , put a Santa Claus character on-air reading aloud text messages sent in by viewers.

On 12 March , the first entirely "interactive" TV channel, VIISI, began operation in Finland. However, SBS Finland Oy took over the channel and turned it into a music channel named The Voice in November In , the Prime Minister of Finland , Matti Vanhanen , made the news when he allegedly broke up with his girlfriend with a text message.

It is about an executive who travels through Europe and India. In the United States, text messaging is very popular; as reported by CTIA in December , the million US subscribers sent adult cellphone users send and receive text messages. The reasons for lower uptake than other countries are varied. Many users have unlimited "mobile-to-mobile" minutes, high monthly minute allotments, or unlimited service.

Moreover, " push to talk " services offer the instant connectivity of SMS and are typically unlimited. The integration between competing providers and technologies necessary for cross-network text messaging was not initially available. Some providers originally charged extra for texting, reducing its appeal. In the U. Japan was among the first countries to adopt short messages widely, with pioneering non-GSM services including J-Phone 's SkyMail and NTT Docomo 's Short Mail.

Japanese adolescents first began text messaging, because it was a cheaper form of communication than the other available forms. Thus, Japanese theorists created the selective interpersonal relationship theory, claiming that mobile phones can change social networks among young people classified as to year-olds. They theorized this age group had extensive but low-quality relationships with friends, and mobile phone usage may facilitate improvement in the quality of their relationships.

They concluded this age group prefers "selective interpersonal relationships in which they maintain particular, partial, but rich relations, depending on the situation. This indicates participants make new relationships with face-to-face communication at an early stage, but use text messaging to increase their contact later on. As the relationships between participants grew more intimate, the frequency of text messaging also increased. However, short messaging has been largely rendered obsolete by the prevalence of mobile Internet e-mail, which can be sent to and received from any e-mail address, mobile or otherwise.

That said, while usually presented to the user simply as a uniform "mail" service and most users are unaware of the distinction , the operators may still internally transmit the content as short messages, especially if the destination is on the same network. Text messaging is popular and cheap in China. About billion messages were sent in Text message spam is also a problem in China.

In , It is about It is routine that the People's Republic of China government monitors text messages across the country for illegal content. These manuals are published as cheap, handy, smaller-than-pocket-size booklets that offer diverse linguistic phrases to utilize as messages.

SMS was introduced to selected markets in the Philippines in The service was initially free with subscriptions, but Filipinos quickly exploited the feature to communicate for free instead of using voice calls, which they would be charged for.

After telephone companies realized this trend, they began charging for SMS. Even after users were charged for SMS, it remained cheap, about one-tenth of the price of a voice call.

This low price led to about five million Filipinos owning a cell phone by Filipinos used texting not only for social messages but also for political purposes, as it allowed the Filipinos to express their opinions on current events and political issues. There are three mobile network companies in New Zealand. Spark NZ formally Telecom NZ , was the first telecommunication company in New Zealand. In , Spark was broken into two companies, with Chorus Ltd taking the landline infrastructure and Spark NZ providing services including over their mobile network.

Vodafone NZ acquired mobile network provider Bellsouth New Zealand in and has 2. Text messaging will become a key revenue driver for mobile network operators in Africa over the next couple of years. One such person used text messaging to spread the word about HIV and AIDS. The advent of text messaging made possible new forms of interaction that were not possible before.

A person may now carry out a conversation with another user without the constraint of being expected to reply within a short amount of time and without needing to set time aside to engage in conversation. With voice calling, both participants need to be free at the same time. Mobile phone users can maintain communication during situations in which a voice call is impractical, impossible, or unacceptable, such as during a school class or work meeting.

Texting has provided a venue for participatory culture , allowing viewers to vote in online and TV polls, as well as receive information while they are on the move. Texting can also bring people together and create a sense of community through " Smart Mobs " or "Net War", which create "people power". The small phone keypad and the rapidity of typical text message exchanges have caused a number of spelling abbreviations: as in the phrase "txt msg", "u" an abbreviation for "you" , "HMU" "hit me up"; i.

To avoid the even more limited message lengths allowed when using Cyrillic or Greek letters, speakers of languages written in those alphabets often use the Latin alphabet for their own language.

In certain languages utilizing diacritic marks, such as Polish, SMS technology created an entire new variant of written language: characters normally written with diacritic marks e. Historically, this language developed out of shorthand used in bulletin board systems and later in Internet chat rooms , where users would abbreviate some words to allow a response to be typed more quickly, though the amount of time saved was often inconsequential.

However, this became much more pronounced in SMS, where mobile phone users either have a numeric keyboard with older cellphones or a small QWERTY keyboard for s-era smartphones , so more effort is required to type each character, and there is sometimes a limit on the number of characters that may be sent.

In Mandarin Chinese , numbers that sound similar to words are used in place of those words. For example, the numbers in Chinese wǔ èr líng sound like the words for "I love you" wǒ ài nǐ. The sequence qī sì bā sounds like the curse "go to hell" qù sǐ ba. Predictive text software, which attempts to guess words Tegic 's T9 as well as iTap or letters Eatoni's LetterWise reduces the labour of time-consuming input. This makes abbreviations not only less necessary but slower to type than regular words that are in the software's dictionary.

However, it makes the messages longer, often requiring the text message to be sent in multiple parts and, therefore, costing more to send. The use of text messaging has changed the way that people talk and write essays, some [72] believing it to be harmful.

Children today are receiving cell phones at an age as young as eight years old; more than 35 per cent of children in second and third grade have their own mobile phones. Because of this, the texting language is integrated into the way that students think from an earlier age than ever before.

An article in The New Yorker explores how text messaging has anglicized some of the world's languages. The use of diacritic marks is dropped in languages such as French, as well as symbols in Ethiopian languages. In his book, Txtng: the Gr8 Db8 which translates as "Texting: the Great Debate" , David Crystal states that texters in all eleven languages use "lol" "laughing out loud" , "u", "brb" "be right back" , and "gr8" "great" , all English-based shorthands.

The use of pictograms and logograms in texts are present in every language. They shorten words by using symbols to represent the word or symbols whose name sounds like a syllable of the word such as in 2day or b4.

This is commonly used in other languages as well. Crystal gives some examples in several languages such as Italian sei , "six", is used for sei , "you are".

There is also the use of numeral sequences, substituting for several syllables of a word and creating whole phrases using numerals. For example, in French, a12c4 can be said as à un de ces quatres , "see you around" literally: "to one of these four [days] ".

An example of using symbols in texting and borrowing from English is the use of. Whenever it is used in texting, its intended use is with the English pronunciation. Crystal gives the example of the Welsh use of in F , pronounced ataf, meaning "to me". In character-based languages such as Chinese and Japanese, numbers are assigned syllables based on the shortened form of the pronunciation of the number, sometimes the English pronunciation of the number.

In this way, numbers alone can be used to communicate whole passages, such as in Chinese, "" can be literally translated as "Hug hug you, kiss you, whole life, whole life I love you. American popular culture is also recognized in shorthand. The feeling of individualism and freedom makes texting more popular and a more efficient way to communicate.

It originally began as a messaging system that would send out emergency information. But it gained immediate popularity with the public. What followed is the SMS we see today, which is a very quick and efficient way of sharing information from person to person. Work by Richard Ling has shown that texting has a gendered dimension and it plays into the development of teen identity. For most people, half of their texts go to 3 — 5 other people.

Research by Rosen et al. in daily writing produced worse formal writing than those young adults who used fewer linguistic textisms in daily writing. However, the exact opposite was true for informal writing. This suggests that perhaps the act of using textisms to shorten communication words leads young adults to produce more informal writing, which may then help them to be better "informal" writers. Due to text messaging, teens are writing more, and some teachers see that this comfort with language can be harnessed to make better writers.

This new form of communication may be encouraging students to put their thoughts and feelings into words and this may be able to be used as a bridge, to get them more interested in formal writing. Joan H. Lee in her thesis, What does txting do 2 language: The influences of exposure to messaging and print media on acceptability constraints , [82] she associates exposure to text messaging with more rigid acceptability constraints.

The thesis suggests that more exposure to the colloquial, Generation Text language of text messaging contributes to being less accepting of words. In contrast, Lee found that students with more exposure to traditional print media such as books and magazines were more accepting of both real and fictitious words.

The thesis, which garnered international media attention, also presents a literature review of academic literature on the effects of text messaging on language. Texting has also been shown to have had no effect or some positive effects on literacy. According to Plester, Wood and Joshi and their research done on the study of 88 British 10—year-old children and their knowledge of text messages, "textisms are essentially forms of phonetic abbreviation" that show that "to produce and read such abbreviations arguably requires a level of phonological awareness and orthographic awareness in the child concerned.

Texting while driving leads to increased distraction behind the wheel and can lead to an increased risk of an accident. In , Liberty Mutual Insurance Group conducted a survey with more than teens from over 26 high schools nationwide.

One example of distraction behind the wheel is the Chatsworth train collision , which killed 25 passengers. The engineer had sent 45 text messages while operating the train. The experiment found that texting while driving was more dangerous than being drunk.

In , the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute released the results of an month study that involved placing cameras inside the cabs of more than long-haul trucks, which recorded the drivers over a combined driving distance of three million miles. The study concluded that when the drivers were texting, their risk of crashing was 23 times greater than when not texting.

Due to the proliferation of smart phone applications performed while walking, "texting while walking" or "wexting" is the increasing practice of people being transfixed to their mobile device without looking in any direction but their personal screen while walking.

First coined reference in in New York from Rentrak's chief client officer [87] when discussing time spent with media and various media usage metrics.

Text messaging among pedestrians leads to increased cognitive distraction and reduced situation awareness, and may lead to increases in unsafe behaviour leading to injury and death. It is unclear which processes may be affected by distraction, which types of distraction may affect which cognitive processes, and how individual differences may affect the influence of distraction. According to them, the addition of texting while walking with vision occluded increases the demands placed on the working memory system resulting in gait disruptions.

Texting on a phone distracts participants, even when the texting task used is a relatively simple one. investigated the effect of other cognitive tasks, such as engaging in conversations or cognitive tasks on a phone, and found that participants actually have reduced visual awareness.

The act of texting itself seems to impair pedestrians' visual awareness. It appears that the distraction produced by texting is a combination of both a cognitive and visual perceptual distraction. supported some of these findings, particularly that those who text while walking significantly alter their gait. However, they also found that the gait pattern texters adopted was slower and more "protective", and consequently did not increase obstacle contact or tripping in a typical pedestrian context.

proposing to use machine learning to specifically detect incoming vehicles. Sexting is slang for the act of sending sexually explicit or suggestive content between mobile devices using SMS. Sexting was reported as early as in The Sunday Telegraph Magazine , [] constituting a trend in the creative use of SMS to excite another with alluring messages throughout the day. Although sexting often takes place consensually between two people, it can also occur against the wishes of a person who is the subject of the content.

Celebrities such as Miley Cyrus , Vanessa Hudgens , and Adrienne Bailon have been victims of such abuses of sexting. com [] suggested a trend of sexting and other seductive online content being readily shared between teens. One in five teen girls surveyed 22 per cent —and 11 per cent of teen girls aged 13—16 years old—say they have electronically sent, or posted online, nude or semi-nude images of themselves.

One-third 33 per cent of teen boys and one-quarter 25 per cent of teen girls say they were shown private nude or semi-nude images. According to the survey, sexually suggestive messages text, e-mail, and instant messaging were even more common than images, with 39 per cent of teens having sent or posted such messages, and half of the teens 50 per cent having received them.

A study that has received wide international media attention was conducted at the University of Utah Department of Psychology by Donald S. Strassberg, Ryan Kelly McKinnon, Michael Sustaíta and Jordan Rullo. They surveyed teenagers ages 14—18 and found that nearly 20 per cent of the students said they had sent a sexually explicit image of themselves via cell phone, and nearly twice as many said that they had received a sexually explicit picture.

Of those receiving such a picture, over 25 per cent indicated that they had forwarded it to others. In addition, of those who had sent a sexually explicit picture, over a third had done so despite believing that there could be serious legal and other consequences if they got caught. Students who had sent a picture by cell phone were more likely than others to find the activity acceptable. The authors conclude: "These results argue for educational efforts such as cell phone safety assemblies, awareness days, integration into class curriculum and teacher training, designed to raise awareness about the potential consequences of sexting among young people.

Text messaging has affected students academically by creating an easier way to cheat on exams. In December , a dozen students were caught cheating on an accounting exam through the use of text messages on their mobile phones. According to Okada , most Japanese mobile phones can send and receive long text messages of between and characters with graphics, video, audio, and Web links.

Further, published research has established that students who text during college lectures have impaired memories of the lecture material compared to students who do not. Spreading rumors and gossip by text message, using text messages to bully individuals, or forwarding texts that contain defamatory content is an issue of great concern for parents and schools. Text "bullying" of this sort can cause distress and damage reputations.

In some cases, individuals who are bullied online have committed suicide. Harding and Rosenberg argue that the urge to forward text messages can be difficult to resist, describing text messages as "loaded weapons". When a student sends an email that contains phonetic abbreviations and acronyms that are common in text messaging e.

In a study by Lewandowski and Harrington , participants read a student's email sent to a professor that either contained text-messaging abbreviations gr8, How R U? or parallel text in standard English great, How are you? Specifically, abbreviation users were seen as less intelligent, responsible, motivated, studious, dependable, and hard-working.

These findings suggest that the nature of a student's email communication can influence how others perceive the student and their work.

However, students have become aware of the reality that using these textisms and adaptations can negatively impact their professionalism. Drouin and Davis surveyed American undergraduates in and found that three quarters of participants believed the use of textisms were not appropriate in formal messaging and writing. Text messaging has been a subject of interest for police forces around the world. One of the issues of concern to law enforcement agencies is the use of encrypted text messages.

In , a British company developed a program called Fortress SMS which used bit AES encryption to protect SMS messages. For example, Swedish police retrieved deleted texts from a cult member who claimed she committed a double murder based on forwarded texts she received. Several thieves have been caught and children have been found using the SMS Alerts. The service has been expanding to other cities.

The Boston Police Department asks citizens to send texts to make anonymous crime tips. Under some interpretations of sharia law , husbands can divorce their wives by the pronouncement of talaq. In , a court in Malaysia upheld such a divorce pronouncement which was transmitted via SMS. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled in that under the state constitution, police require a warrant before obtaining access to text messages without consent.

Texting has been used on a number of occasions with the result of the gathering of large aggressive crowds. SMS messaging drew a crowd to Cronulla Beach in Sydney resulting in the Cronulla riots. Not only were text messages circulating in the Sydney area but in other states as well Daily Telegraph. The volume of such text messages and e-mails also increased in the wake of the riot. Sutherland Shire Mayor directly blamed heavily circulated SMS messages for the unrest.

The Narre Warren Incident, when a group of party goers attended a party at Narre Warren in Melbourne, Australia, and rioted in January , also was a response of communication being spread by SMS and Myspace. Officials say it is an easy way of contacting the community or individuals for meetings or events. Between and the U. secretly created and funded a Twitter -like service for Cubans called ZunZuneo , initially based on mobile phone text message service and later with an internet interface.

The service was funded by the U. Agency for International Development through its Office of Transition Initiatives , who utilized contractors and front companies in the Cayman Islands, Spain and Ireland. A longer-term objective was to organize "smart mobs" that might "renegotiate the balance of power between the state and society.

At its peak ZunZuneo had 40, Cuban users, but the service closed as financially unsustainable when U. funding was stopped. Text messaging has affected the political world. American campaigns find that text messaging is a much easier, cheaper way of getting to the voters than the door-to-door approach.

The popular campaign against him was widely reported to have been coordinated with SMS chain letters. During the U. Democratic and Republican National Conventions, protesters used an SMS-based organizing tool called TXTmob to get to opponents. Text messaging has helped politics by promoting campaigns. On 20 January , President Joseph Estrada of the Philippines became the first head of state in history to lose power to a smart mob.

These people have organized themselves and coordinated their actions through text messaging. They were able to bring down a government without having to use any weapons or violence. Through text messaging, their plans and ideas were communicated to others and successfully implemented. Also, this move encouraged the military to withdraw their support from the regime, and as a result, the Estrada government fell.

Text messaging is a rapidly growing trend in Healthcare. Where messages could be saved to a phone indefinitely, patient information could be subject to theft or loss, and could be seen by other unauthorized persons.

The HIPAA privacy rule requires that any text message involving a medical decision must be available for the patient to access, meaning that any texts that are not documented in an EMR system could be a HIPAA violation. The excessive use of the thumb for pressing keys on mobile devices has led to a high rate of a form of repetitive strain injury termed "BlackBerry thumb" although this refers to strain developed on older Blackberry devices, which had a scroll wheel on the side of the phone.

An inflammation of the tendons in the thumb caused by constant text-messaging is also called text-messager's thumb, or texting tenosynovitis. Increasing cases of Internet addiction are now also being linked to text messaging, as mobile phones are now more likely to have e-mail and Web capabilities to complement the ability to text.

Texting etiquette refers to what is considered appropriate texting behaviour. One example from the site is: "Keep your message brief. No one wants to have an entire conversation with you by texting when you could just call him or her instead. Typing a text message in all capital letters will appear as though you are shouting at the recipient, and should be avoided.

Expectations for etiquette may differ depending on various factors. For example, expectations for appropriate behaviour have been found to differ markedly between the U. and India. In The M-Factor: How the Millennial Generation Is Rocking the Workplace , Lynne Lancaster and David Stillman note that younger Americans often do not consider it rude to answer their cell or begin texting in the middle of a face-to-face conversation with someone else, while older people, less used to the behavior and the accompanying lack of eye contact or attention, find this to be disruptive and ill-mannered.

In , an increasing trend towards spamming mobile phone users through SMS prompted cellular-service carriers to take steps against the practice, before it became a widespread problem. No major spamming incidents involving SMS had been reported as of March [update] , but the existence of mobile phone spam [] has been noted by industry watchdogs including Consumer Reports magazine and the Utility Consumers' Action Network UCAN.

In SMiShing, users receive SMS messages posing to be from a company, enticing users to phone premium-rate numbers or reply with personal information. Similar concerns were reported by PhonepayPlus, a consumer watchdog in the United Kingdom, in Concerns have been voiced [] over the excessive cost of off-plan text messaging in the United States.

With service providers gaining more customers and expanding their capacity, their overhead costs should be decreasing, not increasing. In , text messaging generated nearly 70 billion dollars in revenue, as reported by Gartner, industry analysts, three times as much as Hollywood box office sales in World figures showed that over a trillion text messages were sent in Although major cellphone providers deny any collusion, fees for out-of-package text messages have increased, doubling from 10 to 20 cents in the United States between and alone.

While text messaging is still a growing market, traditional SMS is becoming increasingly challenged by alternative messaging services which are available on smartphones with data connections. These services are much cheaper and offer more functionality like exchanging multimedia content e.

photos, videos or audio notes and group messaging. Especially in western countries some of these services attract more and more users.

Consumer SMS should not be used for confidential communication. The contents of common SMS messages are known to the network operator's systems and personnel. Therefore, consumer SMS is not an appropriate technology for secure communications. The advantage of this international termination model is the ability to route data directly through SS7 , which gives the provider visibility of the complete path of the SMS. This means SMS messages can be sent directly to and from recipients without having to go through the SMS-C of other mobile operators.

This approach reduces the number of mobile operators that handle the message; however, it should not be considered as an end-to-end secure communication, as the content of the message is exposed to the SMS gateway provider.

An alternative approach is to use end-to-end security software that runs on both the sending and receiving device, where the original text message is transmitted in encrypted form as a consumer SMS. By using key rotation, the encrypted text messages stored under data retention laws at the network operator cannot be decrypted even if one of the devices is compromised.

A problem with this approach is that communicating devices needs to run compatible software. Failure rates without backward notification can be high between carriers.

Differences in the character sets used for coding can cause a text message sent from one country to another to become unreadable. The Guinness Book of World Records has a world record for text messaging, currently held by Sonja Kristiansen of Norway. Kristiansen keyed in the official text message, as established by Guinness, in In reality, they seldom attack a human.

His record of Elliot Nicholls of Dunedin, New Zealand, currently holds the world record for the fastest blindfolded text messaging. A record of a letter text in 45 seconds while blindfolded was set on 17 November , beating the old record of 1-minute 26 seconds set by an Italian in September His accomplishments were first in the World Records Academy and later followed up by Ripley's Believe It Or Not Seeing Is Believing.

He has been acknowledged by The Universal Records Database for the most text messages in a single month; however, this has since been broken twice and as of was listed as messages by Fred Lindgren. In January , LG Electronics sponsored an international competition, the LG Mobile World Cup , to determine the fastest pair of texters. The winners were a team from South Korea, Ha Mok-min and Bae Yeong-ho.

As of , best time listed on Game Center for that paragraph is A few competitions have been held between expert Morse code operators and expert SMS users. For example, many Nokia mobile phones have an option to beep "S M S" in Morse code when it receives a short message.

Some of these phones could also play the Nokia slogan "Connecting people" in Morse code as a message tone. Many sports arenas now offer a number where patrons can text report security concerns, like drunk or unruly fans, or safety issues like spills.

For instance, the patron doesn't need to leave his seat and miss the event in order to report something important. Also, disruptive fans can be reported with relative anonymity.

For instance, a single complaint in one section about an unruly fan can be addressed when convenient, while multiple complaints by several different patrons can be acted upon immediately. In this context, "tattle texting" refers to an automatic text sent by the computer in an automobile, because a preset condition was met. Employers can also use the service to monitor their corporate vehicles.

The technology is still new and currently only available on a few car models. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Act of typing and sending a brief, digital message. For the TV series, see Pop-Up Video. For chatting in general, see online chat. Main article: Microblogging. This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources.

Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. August Learn how and when to remove this template message. Main article: SMS language. Main article: Texting while driving. Main article: Sexting. Main article: Cyberbullying. Main article: BlackBerry thumb. Further information: Mobile phone spam. How Mobile Technology is Changing Our Culture. Telecommunication Journal. Retrieved 18 May Just over fifty years ago, in October , the Deutsche Reichspost as it was then known, opened the world's first public teleprinter network.

Network World. IDG Network World Inc. ISSN Retrieved 29 December Telex originated in Germany and rapidly expanded to other countries after World War II. Retrieved 2 February Almost every time, the messages amount to fewer than characters — what would become the limit of early text messages — and thus the concept for the perfect-length, rapid-fire 'short message' was born.

Short Message Service, the Creation of Personal Global Text Messaging. ISBN Introduction to CCITT Signalling System No. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 3 December When watching video tutorials, ensure you know the source or creator of the video. Brokers may produce promo videos that appear to show profits being made easily. Although binary trading is in a period of growth, it remains a relatively unknown product. Over time, this is likely to change.

As digital options as they are also known offer a very simple fiscal arrangement. They are a legitimate way to play the financial markets. There is however, no leveraged exposure with a binary trade, so the risk and reward ratio is also simple to manage. Binary options suffer from a poor reputation. This is basically a result of dishonest and irresponsible marketing and cyber crime, more than an issue with the product itself.

With tighter regulation, and a better understanding by the wider public, these options can — and will — move into the financial mainstream. Which was where they originally developed. While FCA regulated agents and businesses may still have their flaws and faults, they are not fraudsters. Read our section on avoiding scam brokers below. Many of the advantages of using binaries are related or linked.

Here we list some of the benefits to using this form of investment — not just for the retail investor, but also to the market makers or brokers:. Managing risk when trading binary options is clear cut.

The amount of the trade is the full amount that is at risk. This clarifies the risk not only for the trader, but for the broker too. Their pricing model reflects the accurate knowledge of their liability. The certainty of risk provides a solid foundation for brokers to work within and manage.

This leads to low trading feed, tighter spreads and higher payouts. To protect themselves further, they may use a liquidity provider or hedge their own positions. The expensive broker costs of clearing houses becomes unnecessary. Leverage, or gearing, is not generally available with binary trading. This benefits the broker again, as it means all trades must be funded in full.

In other words, no trader can default on a trade. With leverage, if things go wrong, there is a real risk of the broker not being paid.

This is a big difference vs spot forex or spread betting. Layers of complexity can be added to the standard fixed payout option. A binary trade offers the greatest level of flexibility. They even provide a mechanism to speculate on a market remaining flat, arbitrage, or to take a view on the trade volume of the underlying asset.

Again, these robots attract many of the undesirable operators, and the automatic nature of the trades increasing risk further. New traders should be especially careful. An alternative approach is for traders to build their own robots using their own entry points. A growing number of brokers now offer traders the ability to put their own trading robot or program together, using simple tools.

Binary trading itself is legitimate, and not a scam. There are however, brokers and signal providers that are untrustworthy and operate scams or frauds.

It is important not to write off the concept of binary trading, purely based on dishonest brokers. These fraudsters continue to drag down the image of this form of trading.

Regulators, and rule makers are slowly starting to get to grips with these operations and the industry is being cleaned up. If you want to complain about an operator to our watchdog, please let us know via our Contact Us page.

Being aware of the above methods should help those new to binary trading to avoid the less responsible brands. Improved regulation and more awareness should hopefully reduce these types of complaints. This in turn can allow binaries to move forward. Already fallen victim? The services of MyChargeBack. com might be of help. The recent ban of binaries in the EU is ill-thought out, and could well end up pushing more traders towards scams.

Our strategy pages covers over 20 known systems, drawn from a range of forum and club chats, plus expert tips and advice. From high risk Martingale, to intricate systems like the Rainbow. We also cover more specialist subjects, like forex , technical analysis , the best price action indicators, trading signals and winning strategy. All this is aimed to help you gain an edge, and win. Signals are an alert, sent to traders. They are designed as a trading tool, helping traders to spot opportunities.

They can be communicated via a range of methods — email, SMS or from a live signal website or group. Much of the irresponsible marketing associated with binary scams is linked to signals — or auto trading robots utilising them. There are some very good providers out there too.

However, in general, learning how to trade binaries is a safer route than using signals to compensate for a lack of trading knowledge. Sometimes, but rarely in isolation. Some providers deliver a combination of education alongside signals and that represents a good mix.

Traders must be able to fully assess a signal before they can judge the quality of them. We also highlight some of the best providers on the signals page. A binary option can be used in a number of ways, and across a huge array of commodities and markets. This means finding the best dealer, best account, or best trading platform, really depends on the needs of the individual investor. For example, some brokers may focus on forex foreign exchange and trading the Japanese Yen, Euro or sterling.

Others may be strong on commodities and only offer a handful of FX markets. White label platform providers such as SpotOption, Tradologic or TechFinancials also dictate what products the host site can offer, so a proprietary broker with a bespoke design might be preferable. Payment methods merit some thought — if traders want to use Skrill, Paypal, Neteller or Wire transfer, they need to check the broker delivers that.

Mobile trading apps delivered by brokers or binary agents can vary in quality too. Some specifically program for the features of specific models, like iPad or iPhone. Others ensure cross platform compatibility, catering for android, blackberry and windows tablets and devices.

Some traders may have tailored demands for any hand held app, others less so. Trade size limits may point some investors either to, or away from, certain trading accounts. Some brokers offer minimum trades of just £1, while others cater for investors willing to invest £, in a single trade. So every investor needs to consider their own trading style before deciding to open an account.

Our comparison table delivers a quick summary of the key points when comparing brokers. Our detailed reviews then allow potential new users to assess some of the finer points that might confirm their decision. Here is a list of some of the vital comparison points for brokers;. Some points might be more important to certain traders than others.

A speculator taking a position on the monetary policy of the Bank of England or ECB might be best served by one broker, while the person looking to bet on growth in the Apple, Facebook or Vodafone share price might want another. Most top brokers offer demo trading accounts. These allow new clients to try the services on offer. They can see if the range of markets and investment scales suit them and only proceed to a funded account when they are happy that the right trading account has been found.

Those brokers that do provide practise or virtual balances, have confidence in their trading platform. They are prepared to let new traders see it, and try it out, risk free. The majority of these demonstration accounts will work on both the website, and also the mobile app.

Both systems can be checked before making a deposit. This type of account allows the user to not just trial the broker, but also use the demo account to try a new trading strategy, or even back test a strategy based on past financial data. All without risking any of your own cash or wealth. Our broker reviews are written after genuine trading on each platform, brand, or white label.

They include all aspects of each provider — good or bad. The credibility of the reviews is important to us. So they are checked and updated regularly and feedback we receive forms part of the overall rating. In order for binary trading to move into the financial mainstream, comparison services need to be open, honest and transparent — and that is what we try and deliver in our broker reviews.

Binary brokers are regulated via a number of bodies. CySec regulate the majority of brokers based in Cyprus and Israel. European regulation however, allows providers to serve British clients. In the UK however, a stronger layer of consumer protection is available if a broker is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority FCA.

Some firms also register with the FCA — but this is not the same as regulation. This is an important distinction. In the US the CFTC have only licensed two brokers to operate there — Nadex and CBOE. In Australia, ASIC Australian Securities and Investments Commission oversee brokerages. Some firms are also regulated by the Malta Gaming Authority, or the Isle of Man GSC. In Europe, an organisation called ESMA European Securities and Markets Authority also suggest legislation or regulatory guidelines that the majority of domestic regulators adhere to.

They recently suggested that binary options should be prohibited to retail investors — though this policy is rather ill-thought out and out dated. Such changes will punish honest regulated brokers, leaving the dishonest scams to continue operating.

Regulated brokers offer greater levels of consumer confidence than unregulated firms. They are obliged to retain trader funds in separate accounts, and not in company accounts.

They must provide a dispute process for customers, and treat clients equitably and fairly. In addition, regulated firms can only market in a responsible way, and in regions where trading is permitted. Responsible brokers welcome regulation as a way to increase levels of consumer trust.

Copy trading is a growing sector of investing. It allows users to copy the trades of others. Those copying decide how much to invest, and whether to copy some or all of the trades that a particular trader or tipster opens. The traders being copied also benefit, as the broker will often reward these clients through commission, or increased income revenue and profits based on the trade volume they generate. When copying however, time and effort spent finding the right traders to follow will pay dividends.

Social trading is similar, but is more geared towards social media style info sharing.

Welcome to Larry McMillan's Free Learning and Analysis Tools section, your destination for option education and trading resources including free option data and software to aide you in your option trading. Trading or investing whether on margin or otherwise carries a high level of risk, and may not be suitable for all persons.

Leverage can work against you as well as for you. Before deciding to trade or invest you should carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and ability to tolerate risk. The possibility exists that you could sustain a loss of some or all of your initial investment or even more than your initial investment and therefore you should not invest money that you cannot afford to lose. You should be aware of all the risks associated with trading and investing, and seek advice from an independent financial advisor if you have any doubts.

Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. Nor has there been any attempt to determine whether any testimonials are representative of the experiences of all persons using the methods described herein or to compare the experiences of the persons giving the testimonials after the testimonials were given. You should not necessarily expect the same or similar results. Performance Results: Past performance results for advisory services and educational products are shown for illustration and example only, and are hypothetical.

About Us Products Advisories Analysis Tools Educational Materials Money Management Mentoring Blog Contact Us. Free Learning Tools Dictionary Free Option Glossary - A comprehensive list of option-oriented terms and their definitions.

The Various Volatilities - A one hour plus discussion on the similarities and differences between Historical Volatility, Future Predicted Volatility and the all important Implied Volatility. An Introduction to The Greeks - A one hour plus seminar explaining how your option positions will react to changes in price, time, volatility, etc. Profit with Delta Neutral Positions - Learn how to increase profits and reduce risk with this simple yet effective strategy. Probability and Expected Value - Learn to determine the optimal way to allocate your investment capital.

Neutralizing Greeks - Learn to put on the option position you really want with this one hour seminar by head McMillan Mentoring director Stan Freifeld. Binary Options: The ByRDs Are Coming - an hour presentation by Stan Freifeld on the soon-to-be-listed Binary Return Derivatives. Binary Options: The ByRDs Are Coming Part 2 - The second part to the Binary Return Derivitaves webinar. Early Exercise: Strengthen Your Position - Stan Freifeld discusses the different classes of exchange traded options and answers questions reagarding early exercise.

Exploring Calendar Spreads - It s About Time! Educational Articles Option Trading Guidelines - An insightful article containing various guidelines that will generally keep you out of trouble, increase your efficiency of capital, and hopefully improve your chances of making money with options.

Which Option To Buy - An article explaining what contract is best in various option-buying situations. About Put-Call Ratios - A helpful article detailing this powerful sentiment based contrarian indicator. Covered Call Writing: Why Cash-Based Put Selling is Superior - An article explaining why we prefer put-selling over the traditional covered writing. About Our Volatility Data - An instructional guide to our historical volatility, implied volatility, and composite implied volatility percentile data.

Volatility Skew Information - An article explaining the different types of volatility skews and how you should trade them. Using The Probability Calculator to Analyze Naked Put-Sales - Lean how our Monte Carlo Simulation software can aid in choosing what puts to sell.

Neutrality: It works for the Swiss - An article taken from the very first Option Strategist Newsletter covering the benefits of delta neutral option trading. Futures Options Take The Sting Out of Limit Moves - Learn how to hedge limit futures contract moves by hedging with equivalent futures options positions.

Exiting a Put For Parity Near Expiration - A helpful article detailing what to do with your in-the-money puts at expiration and what to watch out for. Four Eye-Opening Facts About Naked Put Selling - an article detailing the benefits of this simple-yet-effective strategy. Free Analysis Tools Calculators Covered Call Writing Calculator - Calculate the rate of return in your cash or margin covered write positions.

Free Probability Calculator - Calculate stock market probabilities with this easy to use simulation program.

Generally however, a binary option is used for short term trading — usually under 30 minutes 5 minutes are the most popular. About billion messages were sent in Here are some of the types available:. If the rate is lower than 2. Bonus Terms and Conditions. France has the same GSM technology as other European countries, so the uptake is not hampered by technical restrictions. In , text messaging generated nearly 70 billion dollars in revenue, as reported by Gartner, industry analysts, three times as much as Hollywood box office sales in

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