1.

Introduction:

SMS or Short Message Service is probably at present one of the main form

of communication among students. Students who have their own or personal cell

phones can hardly say that they pass away any of their days without sending

SMS to his friends or someone special. Short Messaging Service, a service for

sending messages to wireless phones. SMS is similar to paging. At present the

mobile phone use among students are increasing at a very high rate. The SMS

though its not a very much old service has become very much popular among

students at a very high rate compare to the non students or other cell phone

users . Most of the students at present prefer to communicate with SMS rather

than making a call. However they think SMS is much more useful to them from

various perspectives like for sending some kind of greetings SMS is the best

way, for objective reply Telephone numbers. Address SMS is far more better

than making a call and from economic point of view students think as the rate

for per SMS is almost one third of a call and it is more precise and specific its

better to go for SMS rather than making a call . From the students point of view

SMS can tell those words that many calls cannot say.

The purpose of this research as suggested by the topic to find out

How much useful short message service or SMS is for the students

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 2. Back ground Information

However, SMS messages do not require the phone to be active and within

range and will be held for a number of days until the phone is active and within

range. SMS messages are transmitted within the same cell or to anyone with

roaming service capability. They can also be sent to digital phones from a Web

site equipped with PC Link or from one digital phone to another Short Messaging

Service. A service through which users can send text based messages from one

device to another. The message is limited to 160 characters. This is typically the

delivery mechanism for Email to digital phones today. The Email is converted to

an SMS message, truncated to 160 characters, and delivered to the users

handset.

3.Research Questions:

Do students prefer to make a call or send SMS?

On an average how many SMS they send per day?

Whom they prefer to send the SMS?

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 What kind of advantage do you get from SMS?

How many words do you prefer to write?

Do they think the present rate for per SMS is ok?

What kind of advantage do they get from SMS when they are in class?

Do they prefer to send greetings through SMS or not?

Typing SMS is irritating or not?

Question- What kind of response do you get when you want to send

SMS from your Friends mobile?

4.Hypothesis:

Short Message service is mainly used by the students

On an average each students send at least one SMS per day.

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 Students making more SMS than calls

In emergency situation SMS is much more useful than making a

call

Students prefer to write SMS for free of cost

5.Method of research

For this research work I followed the standard way of research. That is I

depended on observations and findings. The basic instruments I used were

primary data and secondary data. However these instruments helped me a lot to

come to the appropriate conclusion.

Primary data collection:

For conducting survey among the respondents I prepared total 10

questionnaire and all of them were close ended question. Than I conduct the

survey among three private universities they are North South University, East

West University and American International University of Bangladesh and in two

public universities they are Dhaka University and Bangladesh University of

Engineering and Technology. From these five universities I chose 30 students to

conduct my survey.

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 Secondary data collection:

I have collected my secondary data from different websites

6.Findings from survey

i. Question- Do students prefer to make a call or send SMS?

Yes- SMS is much more cheaper than a call

No- SMS takes a lot of time to write

I designed this question to find out to find out the validity of my topic. Among 30

respondents 29 answered they prefer to send SMS because they think SMS is

much more cheaper than a call and only one respondent answered he do not

prefer to send SMS because according to him typing SMS is very much irritating

and time consuming as well.

This finding gives us a clear idea in general SMS is a very much popular

service among students because 96.6% students think it is much more

preferable than a call and only

30

25

20
Yes No
15

10

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 ii. Question- Whom do they prefer to write an SMS

Friends

Relatives

Parents

Someone special

According to the first questionnaire it has proved that SMS is a very

much popular service among students as a result my next questionnaire to the

respondents was for whom they are using this service most. Among 30

respondents 15 answered friends and 10 answered someone special and the

rest of the respondents answered relatives and parents.

16
14
12
10
Friends Relatives Parents Some one special
8
6
4
2
0

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 iii. Question- On an average how many SMS they send per day?

Depends on the situation

None

My next question to the respondents was to find out how frequently they

are using this service. Among 30 respondents 3 people answered 1 SMS 2

people answered 2 SMS and 25 students answered depends on the situation.

Here we see that among 30 respondents none of them said they pass away

even a single day without sending a single SMS that means they are using this

service very frequently.

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 25

20

15
1 SMS 2 SMS Depends on situation None

10

iv. Question- Do they think that the present rate for per SMS is ok?

Yes- Everything has a charge or cost

No- Limitations of words is a barrier

My Next question for the students was about cost effectively of this service

which is a very vital as they using this service very frequently factor for the

students . Among 30 students 24said it is cost effective another 6 students said

no they consider word limit as their barrier because sometimes they have to write

More than one SMS that time they have to pay equal to or more than a call.

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 According to this survey we can see that 80%of the students answered it is

cost effective however the rest of the 20% said no its not cost effective which is

one fourth of the respondents who said yes so we can say that its cost effective.

90
80
70
60
50
40 East West North
30
20
10
0
1st Qtr 2nd Qtr 3rd Qtr 4th Qtr

v.Question- How many words they prefer to write?

Not more than 160 words which is equal to a single SMS

Situation depends

Not specific

My next question I designed to find out how much time does the students

use to write SMS. Among 30 respondents 28 answered depends on situation 2

answered not more than 160 words .

Here we can see that about 93.3% students said that they write SMS

according to their situation needs rest of the students which means 2 students

said they always maintain the word barriers but none of the respondents said

they write infinitely and waste a lot of time.

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 30

25
Depends on situation Not more than 160words

20

15

10 Not specific

vi.Question- What kind of advantage do you get from SMS?

According to cost much more than a call

Not more than a call

Not specific

I designed my next question to find out what do the students think about

SMS comparing to a call to a . Among thirty respondents 25 answered or go for

the first option 3 said not more than a call and 2 said not specific.

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 Here we can see that 83.3% student think according to cost much more

than a call because sometimes they think for objective answer like any telephone

number , address or might be for any kind of deadline call is very much

expensive while for objective reply SMS is the best option . While 10% think

sometimes they need to know lot of things that time they have to write lot of

words sometimes more than 160 words that time they have to pay almost or

equal to a call so they do not get any kind of extra advantage from SMS and

6.67% think they simply cannot between call and SMS.

25 According to cost much more than a call

20
Not more than a cal
15

Not specific
10

vii. Question- Do you get any kind of help from SMS when you are

in class?

Yes- SMS is much more useful to receive a message because it

is really tough to receive a call during a class

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 No- SMS is not useful during class because reading SMS in the

class hampers concentration a lot

I designed my next question to find out what kind of extra advantage do

the students get in receiving information when they are in class . Among thirty

respondents 18 said a lot and 12 students said receive SMS during class or

exam hampers their concentration.

According to my survey here I found out that 60% students think SMS

help them a lot when they are in class a lot because sometimes they have to

switch off their cell phones when they are in class or appearing for any kind of

exam that time if their friend, relatives or parents want to send any kind of

important information they can easily do it through SMS. They think so because

when they switch on the cell phone they can easily receive the information they

do not miss the information any way. Rest of the 40% student thinks that not only

call reading SMS in the class also hampers their concentration a lot.

18
16
14
12
10 Yes No

8
6
4
2
0

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 viii.Question- Typing SMS is irritating or not?

Yes- Because typing SMS requires a lot of time

No- SMS saves a lot of money so time is not a big factor

I designed my next question to find out whether the students

Face any kind of disturbance while typing SMS or not. Among 30 respondents 20

said no and 10 said yes.

Here we can see that 66.67% people said they do not feel any kind

of disturbance as SMS saves a lot of money for them and the rest 33.3% said

that they feel as they are using different kinds of set sometimes the key of these

sets disturbs them a lot when they type SMS.

20
18
16
14
12 Yes No
10
8
6
4
2
0

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 ix.Question- Do you prefer to send greetings through SMS?

Yes- Because we believe SMS is mainly based on words and

a person to greet and it is much more organized

No- In any kind of special occasion people normally used to

send SMS to Greet someone however when a person make

a call to greet Someone makes a really great impression about

the person

The above questionnaire I designed to find out a factor which is

very much related to our day to day life that is to greet someone. Among 30

respondents in this case I found a fifty- fifty answer that means 15 student is on

the favor of sending SMS and 15 students is on the favor of making calls to greet

someone.

Here we can see that 50% of the students think SMS is based on

words and to greet someone it must be organized and only SMS can do that. The

rest of the 50% think that sending SMS to greet someone is pretty much

common. However when a person calls another person to greet it definitely

creates a great impression about the person.

14
 16
14
12
10 Yes No
8
6
4
2
0

x. Question- What kind of response do you get when you want to

send SMS from your Friends mobile?

Great response

Not that much

They simply ignore

My last question I designed for the students whether their friends

allow them to send SMS or making a call. Among 30 respondents for this

question 20 said their students allow them 8 said not that much and 2 said they

simply ignore.

Here we can see that among the respondents 66.67% comparing to a

call their friend allow them to send SMS a lot 26.67% think their friends do not

help that much even after they tell their friends that the message is very

important to send.

15
 20
18
16
14
12
Great response Not that much They simply ignore
10
8
6
4
2
0

7. Limitations

In Bangladesh there are more than 20 public universities and more than fifty

private universities. For my research I conducted survey among the students of

North South University, American International University of Bangladesh, East

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West University, Dhaka University and Bangladesh University of Engineering and

Technology. The research that I have conducted among the universities is

mainly situated in Dhaka. I failed to collect data from other parts of the country.

As a result I might not receive the original picture of how much help do the

students get from the short message service from other parts of the country.

Moreover scenario of these five universities may help me to receive the

information about Dhaka however I think Dhaka does not say everything about

the whole nation. The limitation of my research is that I had to depend on the

students of these five universities and survey my topic

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