Mobile operators trashed after Pop Idol text scandal

PEOPLE IN INDIA who voted for Indian Pop Idol contestant Prashant Tamang have staged riots after claims that texts voting for him haven't been delivered.

According to The India Telegraph, voters for the would be star, who's a cop, besieged offices, vandalised shops and attacked posters for the firm after their votes failed to register.

Rajive Chandra, regional director for APAC at Airwide, said that the mobile operators all claimed that the votes were registered. But, he said, the operators need a messaging infrastructure that can balance the message load on the short message service centres. He claims that operators who can handle, for example up to 10,000 messages per second between 6PM and 7PM buy SMSCs costing about $10 million. But if the load is less, the operators may buy systems that don't have the capacity to handle big numbers of texts. µ

L'INQ
Telegraph
Indian Idol