SMS hubs ease international texting

Text messaging across the world’s 700 GSM networks could finally become a reality with the implementation of a hub-based interoperability structure developed by the GSM Association (GSMA).

The hub-based structure is anticipated to deliver “major operational and financial efficiencies” to mobile operators, mainly by removing the need to conclude bilateral interconnection agreements between individual operators.

Instead, the hub structure means operators will only have to connect once to a hub to reach all other networks connected to that hub and through interconnect arrangements between hubs, they will be able to reach operators elsewhere in the world.

Now that the trials of the platform are complete, the GSMA expects operators to begin using the hub system for live delivery of commercial text messages before the end of 2006.

More than one trillion text messages were sent globally last year and international SMS traffic is growing rapidly. The GSMA claims the increase in traffic is placing pressure on operators to replace the existing web of bilateral interworking agreements with a more efficient structure for the delivery of messages across GSM networks.