NTT joins Web services directory effort
CNET reports that “Japanese telecommunications giant NTT plans to launch a directory that conforms to a budding Web services specification called Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI).” Watch this space. NTT introduced the phenomenally successful DoCoMo Internet-enabled i-mode cellular phone that allows Japanese users to access Internet services and send email.
A 20 character message costs ¥1, about ¾ of a US cent (i-mode mail charges are calculated by the volume of data transmitted, not by time). Longer messages up to 250 characters cost a little more to send (3¢) and receive (1.5¢). As far as I’m aware, text messaging isn’t that big in the US. But in Japan, everywhere you go people (and not just teenagers) are checking their cellphones for text messages. It’s the same in Europe where they use the SMS system that currently handles about 1 billion messages a day. SMS has really taken off in Australia too (we use the GSM cellphone standard that supports SMS).
