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White Paper Z300
23 October 2005
EMS (Enhanced Messaging Service)
EMS uses existing SMS infrastructure and industry
standards, keeping investments to a minimum for
operators and providing a familiar user interface
and compatibility with existing phones.
Sounds and melodies
EMS gives the user the ability to send and receive
melodies. These melodies can be pre-defined
sounds, sounds downloaded from the Internet,
sounds received in SMS messages or sounds com
-
posed by the user on the phone keypad or a PC.
Several sounds and melodies can be inserted in
one message, and they can be combined with pic
-
tures.
Pictures, animations and formatted text
Phones supporting EMS include a set of pre-
defined animations for inserting in SMS messages.
New pictures and animations are downloaded from
the Internet or received in SMS messages. Several
pictures can be inserted in one message, and they
can be combined with sounds and melodies. The
users can format text in messages with different
styles and sizes.
Concatenated messages (long SMS)
A part of the EMS standard is the support for con-
catenated messages, which means that the phone
is able to automatically combine several messages
both when creating and receiving EMS. This is use
-
ful to be able to build and display messages with
rich content since the amount of information in
each SMS is limited by the SMS standards.
Compatible with SMS standards
Users have found EMS as easy to use as SMS. In
January 2001, 15 billion SMS messages were sent
every month worldwide. Roughly 80% of this traffic
was user-to-user i.e. mobile phone users sending
short messages to each other using the keypad of
the phone to enter text. The remaining 20% con
-
sisted of downloads and notifications of different
kinds.
Huge business potential
Network operators can now enhance their services
and attract more customers by offering pictures,
animations, ringtones and melodies for download
at their portals. Operators can charge more per
EMS message since it contains more data. Thereby
EMS adds more value to the operators and to the
end users.
Standards
The Enhanced Messaging Service (EMS) standard
has evolved and is now stable and complete as a
part of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project
(3GPP) technical specification. Most major mobile
phone manufacturers and most operators are
actively contributing to the 3GPP standards.
EMS dynamics
An EMS message can be sent to a mobile phone
that does not support EMS, or only supports part
of EMS. All the EMS elements - text formatting,
pictures, animations and sounds - are located in
the message header. The EMS contents are
ignored by a receiving phone that does not support
the standard. Only the text message will be dis
-
played to the receiver. This is true consumer-
friendly standardization.
Examples of EMS contents and
applications
A wide range of contents, applications and serv-
ices may be developed. Below is a list of examples
and areas where messaging can be enhanced with
EMS.
User-to-user message
Messages usually originating from the keypad of a
mobile phone can include pictures, animations,
melodies, formatted text with EMS.
Voice and e-mail notifications
Notifying mobile phone users that they have new
voice or fax mail messages waiting - including
icons or melodies with EMS.