DU students develop software to thumb SMS, e-mail via cell phones

Four third year students of computer science and engineering under the supervision of Lecturer Muhammad Asif Hossain Khan experimentally ran the system at the department laboratory yesterday.

Sumanta Saha, Shah Mostafa Khaled, M Tahidul Islam and M Sanaul Karim developed the system as part of their yearly laboratory project.

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"Now anyone from anywhere in the country will be able to send and receive e-mails using their cell phones," Asif told The Daily Star yesterday adding that the cost involved in thumbing SMS and e-mail is the same.

The programmers faced many problems collecting necessary equipment during their project work. Due to lack of funds they could not operate the system with four cell phones operators, he added.

A beaming Khaled said the system uses a small screen device, a combination of a mobile phone and a computer connected to the Internet, to generate the incoming and outgoing SMSs and e-mails to 'destination addresses'.

"Now we have experimented the system using the networks of GrameenPhone and AKTEL," Asif said adding, "If the country's mobile phone operators finance the project, it is possible to introduce more systems that will help easier mobile communication."

To use the service, a cell phone user has to go to message option of his or her handset and write the recipient's e-mail address # sender's e-mail address or name # message text and send to a phone number which the developers will provide soon.

He said they are trying to launch another system, which enables cell phone users to thumb SMSs and e-mails using the network backbone of the country's four mobile operators at the same cost.

Both projects will be officially launched shortly, he added.