Globe Telecom’s “Share-A-Load” bagged the Most Innovative Service honors at the recently concluded 2004 Asian Mobile News Awards at the CommunicAsia Expo in Singapore attended by major operators, applications and service providers. Behind the world’s first secure and variable P2P call credit reloading system is also a Manila-based wireless applications developer devoted to mobile payment solutions.
The innovative product, showcased here as part of the annual celebration of the National Science and Technology Week, is designed to add SMS sending and receiving capability to information systems, a business practice that is becoming prevalent nowadays.
Geraldine Lugod, ASTI technology marketing manager, said in an interview that the business development division of the agency is now on its last stage of polishing its business proposal before the formal roll-out of the product, dubbed as GSM Data Terminal.
Lugod said the product, which consists of a hardware GSM module and a software that allows simplified integration of SMS into user programs, is cheaper than its commercial counterparts whose price is currently pegged at P
20,000. ASTI said it will definitely sell the products at a much lower tag than the prevailing market price although it refused to give a specific figure since customization can incur additional cost.
As of the now, the Philippine General Hospital is the only institution currently using the GSM Data Terminal since it is still on its pilot stage. However, Lugod said they are expecting to receive inquiries from both the public and private sectors once the complete package is finalized.
ASTI researchers, made up of Jess Manio, Jonathan Bolo, and Gerwin Guba, developed the product over a three-month period in its laboratory in UP campus in Diliman, Quezon City. The agency is readying its application papers for patent to be filed at the Intellectual Property Office.
The DoST agency said the product, aside from being innovative and lowcost, has been simplified so developers don’t have to handle the lower-level details of GSM communication, they can just use the provided software.
It also supports the use of visual programming tools on the Windows platform and with web-based scripts on Linux. Possible applications include reporting or requesting info from server via SMS, programmed sending of SMS to individual/group recipients, and exchange short data via GSM between two computers.
The hardware components of the product include the GSM module with antenna, which is mounted on a PCI form factor card. Only the power supply is taken from PCI slot and the actual system interface is via serial port. The module is controlled internally through AT commands, but this is hidden from user by a device driver.
