Designing SMS applications for public transport service system in Singapore

Short Message Service (SMS) in wireless systems provides the capability of limited-size data messages to subscriber's cellular phone. And the development of value added services based upon the GSM standard is becoming increasingly important to both network operators and the subscribers to such networks. This paper outlines a wireless service system capable of providing real time information of the public transport service system in Singapore. The system allows a subscriber to the service to receive travel information on demand. primarily by means of short messages delivered to their GSM mobile phone. Most importantly. this system integrates bus and mass rapid transit information together in contrast to the existing SMS service on bus guide by SingTel, a leading telecom company in Singapore where it only provides bus information. The system also provides bus arrival information that allows a subscriber to acquire the arrival times of bus services at a bus stop. In addition, a subscriber is able to flag a bus through SMS while on the way to the bus stop and while a subscriber is reaching a particular bus stop, he/she will be alerted through SMS by the system. In this paper, a working prototype is designed to realise all possible factors of the system.