Cell phone text messaging expanding worldwide

• But to many people in much of the rest of the world, wireless phones as text-messaging tools are more important.
• In fact, cell phone "texting," as Derek Tam calls it, is often the primary cell phone application in parts of Europe and Asia.
• Tam is the chief technology officer for a company called Mobile365 Inc. (www.mobile365.com), which handles the transfer of text messages between wireless service carriers like Cingular, Verizon and T-Mobile.
• "We do the interoperability between networks, so if you're on the Verizon network and are sending a text message to a T-Mobile customer, you'll be using Mobile365," Tam said.
• It won't be long, for example, until you're able to walk up to a vending machine and buy a can of pop with a cell phone text message.
• Mobile365 has a data center in Chicago handling these cash transactions for a variety of wireless carriers.
• This technology is currently used in Asian countries like the Philippines, Japan and South Korea.
• "The reason they use cell phones so much more is the PC penetration is much lower than the cell phone penetration," Tam explained.
• "In some countries, cell phone penetration is more than 100 percent, meaning people are using more than one phone.
• They have the same phone number, but they're using different phones for different purposes--like fashion accessories."
• Tam expects it will take a couple of years for this kind of pay-by-text to hit the U.S.
• "Most [companies] will have fraud protection in place," said Tam.
• Spending limits can be implemented, and many carriers in Europe and Asia "monitor high use."
• In fact, "some carriers have banking licenses so they can provide these protection services in a credit card-type manner."