The more we use things like text and picture messaging the more we come to expect that they will always work for us - like email or making a call.
But the fact of the matter is that SMS services (and by "services" I'm talking about things that require 5-digit shortcodes to work: news alerts, sports scores, voting for something on a tv show) are not air-tight technology.
Most companies use a third-party "SMS aggregator" to deliver and receives messages from multiple carriers. These aggregators - companies like mBlox, Ericsson, and SinglePoint - have systems that bind to multiple carriers messaging systems and they are in a constant state of managing traffic flow, provisioning new shortcodes, and keeping up with the various changes that both their clients and carriers make on an ongoing basis.
Most of the time things so swimmingly. But sometimes they don't. This is why we test things like contests and voting time and time again before a big on-air event.
Earlier this weekend Twitter stopped working on T-Mobile and nobody could figure out why. It seemed that T-Mobile had suddenly decided to cut off the service. Which, of course, sent the blogosphere into a tailspin.
Techcrunch had an article on it yesterday. Mashable did as well. The post on the front page of Digg announced that "T-Mobile Turns Off Twitter". As you can tell from the comments in these posts, people were upset. Very upset. They wanted to know if T-Mobile had shut down Twitter for good.
Thankfully the good folks over at Twitter set the record straight today, letting us know that it was a technical issue, not a policy one. And today the problem seemed to be solved completely:
Update (12/15 3p): We're still working on this and believe it to be a technical issue happening between T-Mobile and the folks who help run our text messaging. At this time we do not believe it to be a policy issue (as has been speculated). We're hoping for a resolution soon and will let you know when we know more.
Update (12/15 4:30p): We've received word that the issue has been resolved. We'll continue to watch this closely and let you know if anything changes.
So one thing we learn from this is that mobile technology is imperfect and that we can't always jump to conspiracy theories when something goes awry. But the other big takeaway for me is just how much of an issue wireless net neutrality really is. When the Twitter community thought that T-Mobile was shutting off Twitter they just about lost their minds. As the likes of Verizon and AT&T pledge ever-increasing "openness" this is a good case-study for them to pay attention to.
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