By Dr Pieter Streicher, MD of BulkSMS.com The Consumer Protection Act (CPA) allows sending unsolicited direct marketing communications (which is commonly seen as spam by many consumers) under certain conditions. However, if one looks more closely, it turns out that it is simply not possible to comply with these conditions with SMS communications. Before sending […]
Pieter Streicher
Dr Pieter Streicher graduated from WITS with a BSc-Eng(Civil) in 1991 and he received his PhD from UCT in 1996. After working as a civil engineer at HHO Africa, Dr Streicher, along with Richard Simpson, (BSc-Eng(Civil), MBA), established Celerity Systems in mid-2000 as an IT services company focusing on
the marketing and management of Internet-based solutions.
BulkSMS.com was established in 2000 as a division of Celerity Systems to focus on SMS messaging solutions for commercial and non-commercial communications.
As a leading wireless application service provider, BulkSMS.com offers bulk SMS messaging solutions to large and small businesses, public benefit organisations, and individuals.
The company is headquartered in Cape Town, South Africa and has a global market presence, including in Europe, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America.
BulkSMS.com offers two-way bulk SMS messaging, premium rate solutions and supports mobile marketing campaigns to further an organisation’s SMS communication needs. BulkSMS.com’s flagship messaging solution is the BulkSMS Text Messenger, an application that allows clients to quickly deploy an SMS messaging service from a computer.
Today, the BulkSMS.com is a leading wireless application service provider and was recognized by Vodacom as a top achieving aggregator in the mobile messaging industry for 2009.
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Permission-based marketing can hinge on an SMS
By now, most companies should have woken up to the fact that if they want to stay in business for any length of time, permission-based marketing is the order of the day. In other words, get permission from customers and potential customers before marketing to them. What companies might not yet realise, is that SMS […]
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Watershed year for SMS approaching
2012 is the year that the electronic communications opt-in vs opt-out debate is going to come to a head, and the fallout is going to have a significant impact on both businesses and consumers. Related telecommunication regulatory decisions are going to affect both the price of SMS, as well as the amount of SMS spam […]
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SMS the crime fighter
The latest South African crime statistics for 2010/2011 could probably best be summarised as “improving, but could do better”. While there have been reductions in the murder and attempted murder rate, assault, robbery and attacks on policemen — fighting crime should still be at the top of South Africa’s agenda. With SMS being so suited […]
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SMS recruitment levels the playing field
SMS has shown its ability to act as a catalyst for social change time and time again. From farming, to healthcare, to education and banking, the ease with which information can be accessed and shared via SMS has levelled the playing fields for marginalised members of society around the world. Increasingly this applies to employment […]
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The importance of SMS in an instant messaging world
While a cat has nine lives, it seems that SMS has an infinite number of lives. So while the rise in mobile instant messaging (MIM) has been heralded as its end, a closer look shows that this rather increases SMS’s value in the corporate space. It was BlackBerry and its ostensibly free messaging service between […]
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The death of opted-in communications in South Africa?
The Protection of Personal Information (POPI) Bill is at serious risk of being watered down to such an extent that it is rendered ineffective and meaningless when it comes to preventing consumers from receiving email and SMS spam. The Bill, which has been under discussion since 2009, sets out to establish the minimum requirements for […]
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Veteran technology shows its longevity
It seems a bit crazy to call a technology that is coming up for its twentieth birthday a “veteran”. But if you consider the massive explosion of digital communications technology over the past few years, you start to realise just how long SMS has been around for. Not only that, but SMS has also proved […]
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mHealth needs to be network neutral to flourish
As we’ve started to see in South Africa and across the rest of the continent, the potential for mobile-enabled healthcare is enormous. Evidence from the GSMA Mobile Health Summit held in Cape Town at the start of June shows that mobile operators are currently leading the pack in this space. Going forward, however, it is […]
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Edging towards viable anti-spam legislation
Over the last few years, South African legislation has slowly started catching up with electronic communications, and I had high hopes that the Protection of Personal Information Bill (Popi) would provide the final piece of the puzzle to both protect consumers and allow businesses to continue to market directly to people in an ethical way. […]
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The pros and cons of using SMS in an emergency
SMS is the perfect emergency communications channel, right? People always have their phones with them, especially in an emergency; you can easily send one message to a number of people, and you can text when you can’t talk. Indeed, just over an hour after the earthquake in Christchurch struck earlier this year, Vodafone New Zealand […]
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The fight against child trafficking
Communications technology, such as the internet and mobile phones, certainly make life easier: from online banking, to staying in touch, to news and weather on the go and all the other benefits that have become such an integral part of our daily lives. Unfortunately, the same technology has also made it easier for criminals to […]