Transit SMS

TransitSMS is a unique mobile service which enables users of public transportation systems to use their mobile phones to request and immediately receive bus schedules for arrivals of buses at the location of interest. The service is quick, inexpensive and effective. Upside’s fully hosted and integrated telecommunications system allows any transportation agency, to offer this new information service with little effort, time or cost.

Today, penetration of mobile phones is close to 100% and all mobile phones in operation are capable of sending and receiving text messages. This highly popular service continues to grow, particularly in North America where the use of text messaging (also called SMS) has been doubling or tripling every year for the last decade. It is expected that this year, mobile users will exchange over 2 trillion SMS messages. Public’s interest for the use of public transportation is also on the rise. Cost of fuel, desire to protect the environment and many public initiatives are increasingly turning commuters or casual drivers to consider taking buses for all or part of their journeys. One of the important factors in making the public transportation a part of one’s daily routine is convenience. People like to know schedules of buses so that they can plan their time better; doing what is productive, instead of waiting at the bus stop.

The Solution

TransitSMS is a mash-up that is built on Upside’s SideWinderSMS technology, a mobile messaging service which has been delivering global SMS delivery to individual, enterprise and governmental users since 2001. This advanced and mature telecommunications platform connects all global mobile networks worldwide to allow two-way messaging services. TransitSMS also uses Google Transit to allow transit agencies to quickly upload bus routes and schedules, as well as Microsoft Live mapping utilities to visually refine description of each route or bus stop location.  TransitSMS can operate under several billing models

• Subsidized Service: Transportation agency subsidies the use of the service. In this model, Upside provides messaging services and bills the partner for each transmitted message. This option offers the fastest user adoption and benefits transit authorities as information services become faster and fully automated..
• Premium service: Upside bills users of the service for usage and remits a portion of the revenue to the participating transit authority.
• Advertising sponsored service: Upside provides a vehicle for local merchants to have their advertising messages inserted into outgoing SMS messages. Advertisers are offered a sophisticated on-line ad creating and bidding solution so that they can precisely target transit users at the time when their location is known. Upside and transit authority share the revenue collected from the advertisers and transit users are offered a valuable information service.

Deployment

TransitSMS is a hosted application, all components of the service are managed by Upside. Users, both transit managers and advertisers (if applicable) access services through a secure web interface to manage information. The service offers sophisticated reporting functionality to help both transit manages and advertisers in planning and decision making. Time of implementation varies on the country where you are located and availability of scheduling data. In certain countries (such as Canada) the service can be deployed and fully functional within days. Upside is looking to partner with transit agencies interested in providing enhanced level services to the public. We are excited about TransitSMS because it is a true WIN-WIN-WIN proposal for all involved. The public benefits from availability of highly valuable scheduling information at their fingertips. Transit agencies are able to provide enhanced services to their users (public) and expand advertising capabilities. Also, they automatically extend bus schedules on other public information systems, such as those available on Google Transit or social networking services (Facebook). Advertisers, primarily small businesses, gain access to a location based advertising channel which allows them to attract new users for their products and services. Please contact us today to discuss how your agency can take part in this innovative program.

Please call 18776847474 or contact us to schedule a demonstration of TransitSMS.