This article attempts to inform you on the innovative use of SMS in Kenya. SMS messaging has been around since early 90’s and over 200,000 SMS are send per second. Innovative SMS use permeate all the industries in Kenya from opinion polling, banking, Insurance, schools and the media industry. The most applauded being MPESA cash transfer service provided by Safaricom.Innovative uses of texting in Kenya:
- Premier Rate SMS services like SMS short code and bulk SMS
- Web2sms by Airtel
- Gmail SMS –powered by Safaricom and Google
- Email to Short Message Service
- SMS applications and security
Premier Rate SMS services.
Short code services enable one to send an SMS to a designated number (short code) and in response you get information. For of Short code SMS application in Kenya include:
- To find out KCSE results for a candidate in last year’s exam, you would send her index number to short code 5052.
- You want contacts of a particular company? No problem simply text the business name to short code 5991 and Kenya Postel Directories Ltd will reply with the telephone contacts and physical address of that business or company.
- To get the status of your NHIF account, type the letters “ID”, a space, then your
ID number e.g ID 12345678 and send to 6443. You will get a response with the last month you paid for NHIF and the name of your employer.
Sometimes a short code is restricted to a particular mobile network; in such a case the service will specify the short code for each mobile network.
Bulk SMS is a service provided by Premier Rate Service Provider’s that enables you to send SMS to many people at once.
To start using SMS text messaging in your business like short code or bulk SMS contact a Premier Rate Service Provider for a quotation.
For a list of Airtel Kenya Premier Rate Service Providers,and a list of Safaricom Premier Rate Service Providers.
How do short codes make money?
Short code SMS provide information at a premium rate – prices above the normal SMS rate. The revenue is shared among the short code provider – Premium Rate Service (PRS) Provider – the network company and the content provider.
You can have a dedicated short code or a shared short code. A shared short code is where other companies can sign up and use the same code . What then differentiates your offer is the SMS keyword your users will use. A shared short code will be cheaper than a dedicated short code.
Sending SMS from Gmail –powered by Safaricom and Google
This Google service was discontinued. Updated on 19th Jan 2016
Safaricom in partnership with Google allow you to send free SMS from your Gmail account to a Safaricom line.
You are provided with 50 free SMS credit.Every time you send a message, your credit decreases by one.Every time you receive an SMS message in Chat (for example when a phone user replies to one of your messages) your credit increases by five, up to a maximum of 50.If your SMS credit goes down to zero at any point, it will increase back up to one 24 hours later
Read more about this Gmail SMS service at Google
