This is my introductory post here at InsiderMobile, and I am grateful to the folks there to have this opportunity to share some of my thoughts and experiences working in the industry. By way of background, I have been working in SMS for the past 6 years from several different vantage points. I started working on carrier-grade infrastructure for Tier-3 carriers (you know, the little guys who work in flyover country), deploying SMSCs, MMSCs and WAP Gateways. From there I focused in earnest on mobile messaging, working with SinglePoint as an SE, Project Manager and Product Manager. Finally, I have been working as with content providers for the last three years, helping companies develop innovative campaigns in the US, while navigating the changing sands of carrier regulations, which brings me to the point of this post: the importance of compliance, and its limits.

Carrier regulations - and those promulgated by the MMA - exist for a reason: to protect consumers. Too often, however, they also act as a barrier to entry for companies interested in the mobile space. They can be confusing, seemingly capricious, and vary from carrier to carrier. Companies without an experienced mobile professional guiding them often chafe at the limitations that are imposed, or worse ignore them. And we ignore them at the peril of our business. With the rise of WMC Global - the current industry leader in market-based shortcode monitoring - all companies that offer shortcode campaigns in the US, and now in Canada, need to be hyper-aware of rules of the road, and how they impact the campaigns they run and plan to run.

In the following posts, I plan on talking about the current state of the carrier regulations, what it means for content partners, and the limits of these regulations. I'll try not to make it too dry - gotta worry about those page views :-) - but I think this is a critical piece of knowledge for anyone looking to get into business, and those that are already there.