After a difficult period, the mobile phone industry is booming once again. It has been reported (by EMC) that one sixth of the world's population owns a mobile handset - which accounts for one billion people. This figure is set to double by 2006. According to the Mobile Data Association an average of 55 million text messages (or Short Message Service, SMS) per day were sent across the UK's GSM networks in August 2004. But, while millions of people are using SMS to communicate with their friends, buy data services or even vote for their favourite contestants on TV talent shows, an increasing proportion of the total number of messages sent is made up of unsolicited commercial SMS messages, or spam. A study by British technology firm Empower Interactive revealed that 65 per cent of European mobile phone users receive at least five spam SMS messages a week. In addition, complaints about spam are increasing: in the UK the number of complaints about unsolicited SMS advertisements grew from 65 in 2002 to 393 in 2003. The Advertising Standards Authority recorded only six such complaints in 2001. All this suggests that we need to find a solution to guard against the onslaught of mobile spam - mobile phones are beginning to swarm with unwanted messages, and we might end up with another spam epidemic on our hands.
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