Looks like US mobile phone company T-mobile is refusing to allow Twitterers to use its SMS service to Twitter. Its unclear on what grounds other than its an “unauthorized third party”. There are some great comments over at GetSatisfaction (which is something like the ill-begotten socially-networked version of the Consumerist) on the issue, but one of the most salient revolves around the following issue.
While much of the thoughts around Twitter has been somewhere between “Twitter is a colossal waste of time” to “Twitter is an awesome online chatroom“, what’s been forgotten is that for some people in some circumstances, people are using Twitter to broadcast and receive some critical in-time messages.
One great example has been how some individuals were posting real-time messages about the Los Angeles fires via Twitter. Or, how the Los Angeles Fire Department actually uses Twitter to post real-time messages about emergencies in and around the city. Or the potential to use messaging systems like Twitter in real (and hopefully never) catastrophes, as it gets around the logistical issue of telephone lines being down, through to SMS systems which use very little data to broadcast messages.
Twitter needs champions — real champions of these kinds of services — to have a sit-down with T-mobile, to get a better answer as to why messages have really been stopped, and that, issues of profits and losses aside, to educate them that not all twitters are of the “my cats breath smells like catfood” variety.
4 Comments
Tony,
Thanks for including mention of how this and other decisions might impact the Los Angeles Fire Deparment and other agencies using social media tools to help people lead safer, healthier and more productive lives.
Your blog (via RSS feed) is a daily must-read in our office.
Respectfully Yours in Safety and Service,
Brian Humphrey
Firefighter/Specialist
Public Service Officer
Los Angeles Fire Department
Wow — thanks Brian.
Very kind words! :D
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[...] have the possibility of becoming such a service especially when you take into account; as does Tony Hung in his post about the T-Mobile fiasco, the fact that in the US Twitter is being used with increasing frequency [...]
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