ON-LINE DATA GATHERING USING GSM SHORT MESSAGES
Javier Tuya, Richard Priore, Belarmino Adenso-Dı́az · Annual Conference on Computers · 2000
Decision making is closely related to the quality and freshness of the data handled by the analyst. In railway management, many decisions could be made simply by centralizing information related to the trains running on the network, thus improving service quality. The Asturian regional service of the Spanish Railway Company, RENFE, has started a new procedure for automatically gathering and processing relevant online information through the use of the Short Message Service, the integrated paging service that allows GSM cellular subscribers to send and receive data right on their cellular phone's light-emitting diode display. All ticket collectors carry company GSM cell phone used for sending predefined short messages that are processed by a central computer, discriminating between regular messages such as number of passengers and cleanliness of the coaches, and urgent messages that should be answered by the person responsible at headquarters. This paper presents the design of the computer system, together with the experience that the managers of the company experienced with the new system.