Vodafone launches unlimited national SMS packs

Vodafone has recently launched unlimited national SMS packs for both prepaid & postpaid subscribers. Following is the pack details for Pre-paid customers:

• Unlimited local and national SMS (upto a max of 500 SMSes per day) at a recharge of Rs 52 (Validity : 30 days)
• Unlimited local and national SMS (upto a max of 500 SMSes per day) at a recharge of Rs 34 (Validity : 15 days)

For postpaid customers monthly unlimited national SMS pack is Rs.80 per month. To activate this pack send ACT TEXT to 111.

To know more about these packs send “TEXT” to 111.

Subscribe to this blog's RSS feed

Recently, from almost a month SMSs from Banks, Service Providers, Companies have started prefixing something like ID, AT, VK…etc. What’s all this after all!!? Here I am to explain you what it is! Normally these SMSs originates from a Bulk SMS provider where you can use 11 digit Alpha-Numeric characters as "Sender". But there were some security risks in this method. I was able to give a phone number as "Sender" & it appears as that person at the recipient end. Basically there was a chance to send SMSs as a different person! I was actually using this to fool my friends.

But the new TRAI regulation insisted bulk SMS providers to restrict the "Sender ID" to 8 characters. Other three characters should be used to specify who is the service provider & where it’s originated from. Say for example: HDFCBANK sends an SMS to you using bulk SMS provider located at Tamil Nadu which uses Airtel. You will receive it as AT-HDFCBANK. First character specifies which service provider the message is being originated & the second character specifies from which location it’s originated. Here is the table which has details of these SMS codes:

Service Provider Codes:

So, combination of these two constitutes the first two digit of ?Sender? followed by an hyphen (-) & actual sender name.

There are plenty of free SMS providers on the internet today. But the problem with these providers is they allow you to use only 140 characters & fill remaining space with ads. It looks so unusual to put ads inside personal messages we are sending! SMSFame is the first website I know which allows users to send free 160 character SMSs. SMSFame relies on online advertising rather than placing ads inside SMS. SMSFame requirs a simple registration process before you start sending SMS.

Link: SMSFame.com

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:

One of the India’s free SMS messaging website way2sms.com has announced to release free SMS alerts for emails. Way2SMS sent me an email announcement about this new service. It’s basically a new email service from way2sms which also allows reading emails from gmail & yahoo mail & get alerts via SMS. Here is the complete description of the service:

Way2SMS Now offers Free Email. Get yourname@way2sms.com.

You deserve the best. Way2SMS Mail delivers..

* Top quality Spam filters blocks spam before it gets into your inbox.
* Search your mails instantly
* Auto display of contacts while composing your mail
* Saves every outgoing mail contact automatically.
* Folders and colored mails to organize your mails and to mark important mails.
* New email alert notification.
* Import contacts from yahoo, gmail and other accounts.
* Signature – automatically added to the end of all your outgoing messages.

Receive instant free email alerts on your mobile.
Don’t miss important mails just because you’re away from the PC. Get SMS alerts on your mobile phone as and when the new Mail arrives. You’ll receive only alerts for the emails you want, when you want them.

Notify recipient on mobile while sending an email.
Send Mail with SMS alert -More visibility to your emails. Notify recipients on their mobile while sending an email.

Get mail alerts on mobile for your Yahoo & Gmail accounts.
Link your Yahoo, Gmail and other email accounts with Way2SMS mail account. And get instant Free SMS alerts for your Yahoo, Gmail accounts too. Way2SMS delivers an alert on your mobile whenever an email hits your gmail or yahoo inbox. You can link your other mail accounts too.

Chat right inside way2sms with your Yahoo& Gtalk contacts simultaneously.
Way2SMS enables you to chat with your Gtalk and Yahoo contacts simultaneously. Just login with your gmail/yahoo account to start chatting – it’s as easy as that!. Allows you Chat with online friends and SMS to those who are away from computer.

Access Gmail, Yahoo inbox inside way2sms.
Now, check your Yahoo, Gmail inbox right inside way2sms.com. Manage all your mail communication, chats and SMSing from Way2SMS. Send mails to your Yahoo, gmail contacts right from Way2SMS.

Get latest news, cricket scores/updates as RSS feeds.
Never miss anything ! get breaking news and other current happenings when you are on way2sms. We buzz you with the latest news, cricket scores etc.,. We bring all the latest stories from popular sites such as ndtv.com, ibnlive.com,hindustantimes.com, cricbuzz.com etc.

Though this service is not first in India, it’s the first one which will be available for free. SMS alerts for emails is also provided by mobee.in, but they charge for it. I think this service will take way2sms to acquire much better position in Indian internet space.

Way2sms has not yet announced exact date of launch of this service. Keep watching at way2sms for it’s launch.

Most of the times we call the customer care to just to activate or de-activate a service. Sometimes, a service gets activated by accident, like caller tunes because of automated IVR based calls. Here is the list of short codes for Vodafone to actvate or de-activate a particular service:

You need to send this code to Toll Free number 111. Pre Paid customers need to send the code to 144 depending on service, which I am not sure about. Since both are toll free, you can have a try with both of them! If one doesn’t workout try another one!

FooSMS was down yesterday & since it was loading different site, I thought it went down forever. To confirm this, I sent a mail to FooSMS team asking reason for going down. It seems they are coming with new interface including user registration, here is their reply:

Hello Prashanth,

Thank You for Contacting FOOSMS !!

Actually our back-end team is still working with some reseller options.
You can find the same @ http://sms.foosms.com
We are planning to release the same within a weeks time.
With reference to this we changed our servers and while updating the ip
address, a mismatch happened.
And yesterday it takes little more time for the name servers to reflect.
i.e. the actual problem what we faced yesterday.

Thanks,
J.Bibin
http://www.foosms.com

That’s a very good news for all FooSMS users (including me). Since this is still in “Beta” it might not be fully functional. You have to wait until it gets released. By the way, you can use same old FooSMS at http://foosms.com (without WWW). I usually use FooSMS for sending any long web URL to my phone! eNjoY free SMSing!

Goto Foosms.com

Foosms is a website which allows you to send SMS to any mobile phone in India. Well, there are lot many already available, why I am writing about this? Because Foosms doesn’t require any login or registration to send SMSs. Foosms is quite simple, I was really surprised to see homepage. I was expecting many bla bla bla things about features it offers & a “Register Now” button!!! But FooSMS presented me SMS sending interface right away in home page!

FooSMS Home Page

One of the reason for success of Google is that it is simple. Especially Search, it gives a search box straight away to input in & search. If you load Yahoo, you will lot of unwanted stuff & have to search for the search box! I guess whomever made this page are inspired by Google!

So you start SMSing straight away without any login, any backwaas!

I have already reviewed many SMS services on Tech Bangalore, this is the consolidated post on all available SMS services. Free SMS services are important as many of us don’t have free SMSs on our tariff & service providers doesn’t allow free SMS festival occasions. So, I am making a list of available services with small description about each of them.

Free SMS services:

Way2SMS:

Way2SMS is a free SMS service which enable you to send free SMSs to any mobile number in India from web. Just sign up & start sending SMSs. It also has group messaging service. Out of 140 characters of SMS, users are allowed to send 92 character messages. Remaining characters will be used for advertisements. Despite of web interface to send SMS, way2SMS also has wap interface. So, If you have GPRS active on your mobile phone, you can send SMSs via mobile phone also.

Link: www.way2sms.com

You Mint:

You Mint is yet another service similar to Way2SMS which allows you to send free SMSs to any mobile in India via web. It allows 80 characters of message & remaining used for advertisements. You Mint claims “We actually pay you for getting friends signed up to this service!“. You Mint pay users for referring friends to it’s network.

Link: www.youmint.com

Conclusion:

Way2SMS stands out in lot of areas listed below:

• Way2SMS allows 92 characters unlike 80 characters of You Mint
• Number of SMSs per day or to a number are limited in You Mint, unlimited in Way2SMS
• You Mint has time limitations to send SMS, free SMSs are allowed only between 8 AM to 10 PM
• Lack of wap site

Group Messaging Services:

SMS Gup Shup:

SMS Gup Shup is the best available service to send group SMSs. You can create your own group & start sending SMSs. You can use web interface to send SMSs to group of people free of cost. You can also send SMS to your group from you mobile, send SMS to 567673434 & that gets delivered all people in your group.

Link: www.smsgupshup.com
Tech Bangalore Review

Activ Mobs:

Activ Mobs is a Bangalore based group SMS service which enable you to send group messages from your mobile. The idea of Activ mobs is to send message bunch of people for the cost of one SMS. Activ Mobs don’t have any web interface to send group SMSs. This is the SMS only service with registeration & using services are via SMSs only. Activ Mobs uses karnataka local number rather than premium number which reduces the SMS sending cost.

Link: www.inactiv.com

Tech Bangalore Review

Tagg.in:

Tagg.in is a recently entered into group SMS service. Tagg claims it’s not only group SMS system, but also a Micro Blogging platform. Tagg has pretty good interface & simple registeration process. For me, it looks like clone of SMSGupShup with no additional features.

Link: www.tagg.in

Tech bangalore Review

SMS Sharing Service:

Vakow:

We don’t have any competetors in this service, Vakow rules! Vakow is a greate web service for SMSs I have seen. Vakow is to share SMSs with your friends & world. You can use either web interface to post messages or via SMSs. Users can subscribe to other users, rate SMSs posted by others…etc. You can also store personal messages which carries memories (Ex: First proposal you got from a girl/boy ). Personal messages can be marked private which will not be visible to anyone else.

Link: www.vakow.com

Tech Bangalore Review

It made a very positive impact on my mind at the first look itself. What an interface, looks really great & simple. Coming to service, it apparently looks to me as combination of smsgupshup & twitter! Tagg.in claims itself as SMS group messaging system as well as micro blogging platform. But they are not simply telling like that.

Firstly registration is very easy, you have to fill only three feilds, email, password & verification code (are you human?). You can activate your mobile phone later, but updates via SMS is what looks great. Registration process can also be completed via SMSs. So you need not to have internet to use this service, just remember SMS short codes & their number. Tagg.in uses local number 99801 99801 so you will be less charged by service provider to update via SMS.

After simple registration process, you can create your own group termed as TAGGtivity. Updates to group can be sent using web interface or SMSs. Your followers can follow your updates in either medium. You can subscribe to other popular groups like CricScores, BrkgNews, SportsNews, JokesGuru…etc to get free updates.

Cons:

• You cannot add your friends mobile numbers to your group, they have to sign up or have to send a message from their mobile to follow your updates. SMSGupShup has a feature where you can add mobile numbers of your friends to your group & start sending messages straight away.
• Updates can be made via only two mediums, SMS & web. I still love twitter because it provides lot of ways to update. May be they are going to add these features in final release, this is still in alpha.
• Lack of badges to display your updates on your blogs or web pages.

I feel it still lacks in features when compared with it’s competitor. Let’s wait and see what features they are going to bring in final release.