I got this crazy idea
 

Okay, so I was thinking about how I got rid of my data plan, because I couldn't afford to pay $15 per month (college student here, nuff said), but I still have unlimited text messages. So, I was thinking about how to access the internet still without having to pay an expensive monthly fee for some crappy data plan or having to hassle with searching for a public wifi spot with my ppc-6700 apache.

So, this is where my crazy idea comes in:

What if I designed a program that would allow for you to use your SMS as an internet service? That is, I would make an "SMS Browser" for my phone and what you would do is request a URL via SMS and that SMS message requesting the URL would be sent to a server (home pc or whatever else can pull webpages) and that server would then retrieve that webpage and put the source code (at least the text, not necessarily pictures) into many SMS messages and send it back to your phone which would then be displayed on your "SMS browser" as a webpage.

Of course, you would get 100s and possible 1000s of text messages to pull this off, but since I have unlimited, it wouldnt be a big deal, I would just have to control how I regulate incoming text messages in my phone. I think I could program something like this, or at the very least make my SMS messages send macro-like functions to the server (such as logging into a website) and retrieve the information I need. I know google has something like this, like you can SMS a google phone number with something like "Define text message" it will give you the definition of that phrase or word.


What do you guys think? It sounds pretty crazy, but if I can get this working efficiently, I think it can be a nice way to get the internet for cheap ppl like me.

Re: I got this crazy idea
 

Main problem I see with this, is the 160 character limit on txt messages.

Why not simply use the Wifi on the phone instead? Poor college student = Free Wifi on campus, right?

Re: I got this crazy idea
 

Yes you could do this "maybe" but if you had a phone with wifi then you wouldn't have to do all this...

Re: I got this crazy idea
 

Yes, I do have Wi-Fi on my phone. I am talking about on the go where there is no Wi-Fi. (my campus does have free wi-fi everywhere)

Also, I am aware of the 160 character limit, which is why there would be many "text messages" sent to the phone to display a webpage. Think of each text message as a "packet". My idea is kind of based off how packets are sent/received over networks. Like, for me to load this page, it probably took ~50 packets, depending on the size of the packet. Yes, 160 characters would be a pretty small packet I would imagine, requiring many, many text messages. But if I can get a good program going that can process the text messages properly, I might be able to pull it off. Is it probably more hassle than it will be worth? Probably, but it would be good experience for me and something fun to do.

Re: I got this crazy idea
 

YES.....Something else occurred to me. How will this work for those folks who have "normal" cell phones, say your average flip phone with a very small screen? It would take forever and a day to get to the end of the multiple messages that would make up a webpage.

Re: I got this crazy idea
 

I have seen a program for PPC that has a web content viewer that uses SMS. It has weather, movie, email, sports... I have a data plan so I didn't try it out for too long, but it seemed to work ok. If I didn't have my data plan, I would definitely use it. I have been searching for it on Google for a half an hour for you, but I can't seem to find it. I'll keep looking.

Re: I got this crazy idea
 

Ok, I found it. It doesn't have a crazy amount of features, but there are some..

Smart Touch Mobile
http://www.smarttouchmobileinc.com/

Hope it helps..

Re: I got this crazy idea
 

How much is the unlimited text plan? Dump that and get the data.

Re: I got this crazy idea
 

My general conclusion is that if internet is important enough for you to waste your time coming up with software that in the end will be low quality and more inefficient than actually using normal internet access on a normal phone or using a laptop or campus computers and also getting a gazillion text messages and not having accesss to more complex sites than just figure out a way to come up with the 50 cents a day (15 dollars month you mentioned ) for internet. Buy 2 less beers at the bar a month. Financial assistance should be available somewhere. Buy some energy saving lightburbs for your residence. Lowering quality of life (internet experience) for 15 bucks? I wouldnt do it. That is if its that important to have internet access :)

Re: I got this crazy idea
 

Hopefully that didnt come across as harsh to you or others. But I truly believe in the end you will be happier with paying small amount of money for a readily working internet service you can access anywhere. Convenience and ease of use and accessability should be important as well besides costs. A car for eg. anyone who has a car on campus can say I could buy a bike and save on gas. You can lower your quality of transportation, etc... just to save a few books or you can benefit from convenience and ease of use. Faster travel. Just need to figure out whats important to you most. Sounds like you have Wifi covered. Wifi available everywhere pretty much. If thats not good enough for you than it sounds like accessability and convenience are important to you. Instead of researching software or possibilities of lowering quality of use, i would recommend researching how to come up with extra 15 bucks a month in the easiest possible way. Wether its mowing a yard 1 time a month. (an odd job) or whatever. That should be focus. Or cutting back on spending whatever you may overspend on. Tutor someone for like 30 bucks for 1 hour. Theres 2 months of internet for you ! !!!!! Have a happy new year and good luck!