Voice SMS Consumer Corner

I must be kidding. This darn thing (math), which killed the joy of your childhood, can’t return to haunt you again in your adult life. This can’t be “the solution” for weight-loss, isn’t it so?

Well, I am not so sure about “the solution thing,” but I am pretty much certain that I am not kidding. A Little math (not those monstrous calculations and symbols that we hated as a kid) can help us lose weight.

How?

I am about to tell you that, and hope you will follow the suggestions once it makes sense to you. Do not worry, the calculation I am going to give here is not like those arduous dieting regime that never worked. It will work.

Weight Loss calculation

1 Pound = 3,500 calories

So, if you want to lose 20 pound then you will need to lose:

20 X 3,500 = 70, 000 calories

Now suppose, you want to lose this much weight in 3 months (90 days) then you will need to lose:

(20 X 3,500)/90 = 777.78 calories/day

Just cut this much calories from your daily diet and you will be shed those unwanted 20 pounds in just 3 months. But what if you cannot cut 778 calories in a day? Will not you lose weight? You can still lose weight, but for that, you will need to introduce another factor in the calculation.

Let’s understand that you need to cut 778 calories to reduce 20 pounds in 90 days, which can either be done solely by reducing the intake of 778 calories per day, which may be difficult, or by including a light exercise to your daily routine. Let me assume that your weight is 200 pounds and you have decided to take a brisk walk for 30 minutes per day. When you do so you will lose around 300 calories every day (see the figure below for the complete chart), so you will only need to cut down on 478 calories from your daily diet.

Calories need to burn daily = 778

30 minutes of brisk walk = 300 calories

So, calories to cut from food = 778 – 300 = 478 calories

If you do not want to jog or if you do not have scope to cut calories then you can include more than one exercise to burn 778 calories daily. For example, if you walk briskly for an hour then you will just need to cut 148 (778-600) calories from your food.

But before you start your journey, you need to know your daily calorie requirement and base rate for your weight type. See the charts below.

As you can see from above, just a little bit of calculation can help you lose your weight.

If you are a fitness freak and you want to live a healthy life then you should subscribe to daily health update through Voice SMS on your mobile. Click here to know how you can subscribe for Health update on your mobile.

Dear Friends, according to a recent report, farmers in the “texting capital” of the world-the Philippines-will soon have nutrient management advice tailored specifically to their rice crops delivered to their mobile phones.

Dr. Roland Buresh, part of the International Rice Research (IRRI) team that has joined the Philippine Department of Agriculture to establish the system, says that after responding to a series of simple questions about their rice paddy, farmers would receive an automated text reply recommending what amounts, sources, and timings of fertilizer are needed for profitable rice production in their paddy.

For farmers who are illiterate however, it would be an uphill task to access and understand these messages. This is a gap which can be very aptly filled by Voice SMS application. When farmers get Voice SMS by outbound dialing, wherein they receive a phone call in their own native tongue, telling them various important announcements of inclement weather, irrigation projects, market details, produce pricing, fertilizer information etc., it is much more effective then text messages which may or may not be read or understood.

Voice SMS can play a crucial role in relaying important and urgent information to people who are not literate in reading and writing.

While India is awaiting an imminent onset of 3G, Sprint in US has gone ahead and made available wireless 4G network commercially.

In addition to the ongoing market roll outs of 4G service across the country, Sprint has several new 4G devices planned for 2009 and 2010, including a single-mode 4G data card, embedded laptops, a small-office-home-office broadband modem and a tri-mode phone. Sprint was the first wireless carrier to offer access to both 3G and 4G networks on one device – the 3G/4G USB Modem U300.

Sprint made history by launching 4G in Baltimore in September 2008, then by launching the first dual-mode 3G/4G device in December. The current availability of Sprint 4G in Baltimore and the roll-out of 4G in major markets in 2009 and 2010 delivers on Sprint’s promise to offer a faster Internet experience in cities across the nation than any other wireless service from a national carrier.

With speeds upto 10 times faster than 3G, a 4G network brings the Internet to life and represents a shift in the way business, consumers and local governments will use mobile broadband, by extending the Internet beyond home or office use. 4G data cards, laptop solutions and phones will enable businesses and individuals to work when and where they want.

4G enables rich content, larger file transfers, streaming video and low-latency remote access. 4G-enabled smart phones have the promise of delivering processing power, applications and now the network connectivity to replace the laptop paradigm.

For most of us this is more of a fantasy than a reality. Some counteries have been stuck at lower technologies for a long time.
We hope that 4G becomes a reality globally and makes next gen communication a reality within this year….
(Source of Sprint news: Sprint PR dated March 25, 2009)

Literacy or affordability no longer remain a qualifying criteria for mobile usage in most countries today. Rural telecom is an upcoming buzz word opening up new opportunities for adoption and use of Mobile Value Added Services. This can be witnessed by the ever expanding mobile subscriber base in rural areas. Until a couple of decades ago, nobody knew the potential of this common interacting mobile device that has now capitalized people’s need for information and entertainment.

Mobile phones are proving to be the most important networked knowledge exchange technology being used in the developing world. Some mobile VAS applications in rural areas in developing countries are as under;

 In Ethiopia, in 2008 UNICEF implemented RapidSMS technology to monitor the distribution of RUTF (Peanut-based Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food) amongst the population, compiling mobile text message data into real-time correlated reports.

 In Kenya, a crowd sourcing approach is utilized over cell phones that offers literate mobile phone subscribers in the developing world new ways to earn extra money. The service connects corporations with small tasks to be completed—currently, the most common ones include software localization and translation into local dialects. Companies like Nokia pay people to accomplish millions of simple text based tasks like translation into and from local dialects.

 In South Africa cell phones are being utilized to send SMS to rural populace for transmitting messages on HIV-AIDS information

 In Tanzania market spies called “shu shu shu” are scattered around the country to collect information about markets and share them via cellphones with other members of the same organization.

 In Syria, mobile phones are used as a device to spread farmers’ experiences and knowledge of farming and plant breeding with their other contemporaries.

 In Uganda, applications like farmer’s friend, health tips, clinic finder, Google trader, Activism campaign against gender based violence, CELAC (Collecting and Exchanging local Exchange Agricultural Content) project are being carried out through mobile phones.

 In Vietnam iNhaNong (a software product installed in mobile phones) was introduced in 2008 through which agricultural products are purchased by sending text messages.

Voice SMS is one of the prominent VAS services imparting life to plain text. Voice transmission has many advantages over SMS and data transmissions. Voice SMS channels human, spoken language directly to the receiver; users of many literacy levels can use voice technology; issue commands and requests in their native local language.

Voice SMS based subscription services can be transmitted to rural audience comprising of Information on fertilizers and Crops, Weather, Healthcare, Education Governments Social schemes viz., Polio, Registration, Flood or Drought schemes etc., NGO Schemes, Commodity Prices, Emergencies, New career choices, Social Reform message (overcoming caste, racial, gender divides), Corporate products, Entertainment and Religion.

Folks….we recently deployed our Call-n-Tweet solution with Viva, named TwitVoz, in Dominican Republic.

With this launch, Viva DR mobile subscribers can update their status on Twitter through voice tweets. Call-n-Tweet holds various benefits for the Twitter user community over a text tweet. It is easier and faster to tweet using voice. Audio works better than simple text as your voice can convey your emotions. Sending an audio message is a richer medium and users are not restricted to the message length of 160 characters. Call-n-Tweet can also be effectively used for micro blogging.

Social networking sites have become a very important part of our lives and constant interactions between people using sites such as Twitter make this ecosystem more vibrant. Mobile subscribers are today looking for more ways to interact with the social networking sites from their mobiles.

Our Call-n-Tweet product is designed to be offered by carriers to allow their mobile subscribers to connect with social networking sites such as Twitter. In addition, subscribers in USA can sign up at callntweet.com and use the service for free.

Hi Folks, Uganda’s leading mobile provider MTN says it has experienced a significant adoption of Voice SMS in the first three months of the launch of the service. MTN launched Voice SMS service across Uganda, based on pioneering Voice SMS technology from Kirusa.

MTN Uganda Voice SMS service has seen adoption by over 11 percent of its subscribers within three months of the launch of Voice SMS on their network.

Voice SMS allows the subscribers to send messages by voice, eliminating the need to type, further stating that it enables the subscribers to communicate faster, with greater ease, and convey emotions as compared to limitations of text messages.

Use of Voice SMS by mobile subscribers is gaining global relevance for its benefits in surpassing the limitations of text messages.

Uers can send messages to other MTN users, as well as to subscribers of other mobile carriers in Uganda. The service is being promoted, and awareness is being created in the subscriber base, using several methods, including USSD, SMS, MTN retail outlets, and radio.

Chief Marketing Officer of MTN Uganda Isaac Nsereko, said the service has been receiving an overwhelming response from the subscribers since its launch three months ago.

“The richness of the Kirusa solution and the support from the Kirusa team has been instrumental in achieving this success,” he said.

MTN introduced tiered pricing for Voice SMS for prepaid subscribers with discounted pricing for sending Voice SMS to on-net subscribers and during off-peak hours. Postpaid subscribers pay one price for sending Voice SMS to on-net and off-net at all times. MTN’s offer of free repeat listen calls for three months also added an impetus to the traffic.