Warid Brings IM Over SMS
WaridTel Pakistan which is doing great with its prepaid brand ‘Glow’ and Prepaid GPRS bucket and is the favorite among users who voted in the poll being conducted here at telecompk, but faces criticism on lack of marketing its VAS. Recently it has come up with another unique VAS of ‘IM over SMS’. Unique because this one doesn’t need GPRS to get on IM.
The service sounds good and appealing but I see a lack of security in the process with sending out your accounts passwords over the SMS which can be intercepted over the transmission. In my view, this could have been made secure by allowing the account registration process over USSD which allows session based communication between the server and the mobile device.
Anyways, the details from Warid’s website are as under:
IM Over SMS! – let your fingers do the talking!
Want to use MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger and Googletalk but don’t have GPRS on your phone? Warid brings to you the easiest & most innovative solution ever!
Now enjoy “Instant Messenger over SMS” & chat with you buddies on MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger & Googletalk just by sending an SMS!
Here’s how you do it:Just send ‘<EmailAddress><space><EmailPassword> to 1126 in an SMS. For example: abc123@hotmail.com xyz123
You will receive an SMS notification with your online friends (on MSN, Yahoo or Googletalk depending on which of your accounts you have logged in to). Just reply to the message and start chatting instantly to the friend of your choice. Whether you’re at home or on the go, IM over SMS is a great way to stay in touch with your buddies on MSN, Yahoo and Googletalk!
Commands List (send these commands to 1126 in an SMS)
- <EmailAddress> <EmailPassword> (to login to a new account)
- ON (to sign in to all saved accounts)
- OFF (to sign off from all saved accounts)
- FRIENDS (to receive online friends list)
- ACC (to view all saved accounts)
- REMOVE <EmailAddress> (to remove an account from saved accounts)
- HELP (to receive commands list and get service introduction)
- STATUS (to change your status to online, busy or do not disturb)
Charging
Rs. 1+tax/SMS
USSD is Unstructured Supplementary Services Data, primarily used for prepaid recharge. Will discuss more about it soon. You can read more about SMS security issues in Babar’s earlier post here.
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Agree with you over security concerns. I was raising this issue on another blog as well. I guess USSD is still better, but it could be even better…and still be over SMS. I’m surprised that Microsoft has allowed such a non-secure channel for exchange of user credentials because if you look at all of these messnger services everywhere, it always uses secure HTTP for connection.
Would you have any idea if this service is endorsed by all these IM providers?
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