Abstract
Short message service (SMS) is now pervasive in many developing countries, thanks to the large footprint of second generation cellular systems, especially GSM. However, in many of these countries, only a handful of privileged end-users have Internet access. This state of affairs is a major impediment to the wide deployment of e-services, since most e-services require Internet access, and so has created a strong motivation for leveraging SMS infrastructure to enable Internet access for e-services in developing countries. This paper introduces real life scenarios, proposes an architecture and discusses the related research issues. The scenarios show that near-real time and even delayed access may be sufficient for many e-services – an option that has been used as the premise upon which the architecture relies. The kiosks are its pillars. They mediate between the widely deployed SMS service and the scarcely available Internet access. Related research issues are identified and discussed. Related work is also summarized.
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© 2011 ICST Institute for Computer Science, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering
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Belqasmi, F., Aniambossou, C., Glitho, R. (2011). Leveraging SMS Infrastructure for Internet Access in Developing Countries: Scenarios, Architecture and Research Directions. In: Popescu-Zeletin, R., Rai, I.A., Jonas, K., Villafiorita, A. (eds) E-Infrastuctures and E-Services for Developing Countries. AFRICOMM 2010. Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, vol 64. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-23828-4_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-23828-4_2
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
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