The Hindu Business Line : SMS services in 22 Indian languages soon

For, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), the global standards organisation that defines standards for GSM-based mobile services, has approved a move to include 22 Indian languages in mobile telephony standards in October. This is the first time that a standardisation proposal from India has been accepted by the global body.

With this, all the non-English-literate subscribers in India will be able to send and receive text messages just as others do today in English, besides getting a multitude of SMS-based services such as news alerts, travel updates, banking services and health information.

The move from 3GPP will prompt handset vendors to also develop uniform keypad layout and other user interface that are friendly to Indian languages. Though at present some handsets support some Indian languages, it is not done in an organised way. For example, the Hindi keypad on a Nokia handset could be different from what Motorola provides.

A lot of the language capabilities, currently, is also achieved through proprietary software by individual handset makers, which gives rise to inter-operability issues. As a result, India lags behind other countries in SMS usage.

A standards-based method will enhance inter-operability across devices and operators. The India initiative at 3GPP was led by the Centre of Excellence in Wireless Technology.

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