An SMS-Based e-government model: what public services can be delivered through SMS?

Delivering public services through SMS (SMS-based e-government) is becoming popular in developed and developing countries as a strategy to engage more citizens in using e-government services. Current advances in SMS-based e-government applications by local authorities in developed and developing countries are investigated to determine what extent SMS-based e-government could deliver existing Internet-based e-government services and whether these services can fulfil the actual needs of e-government services users. The currently available SMS-based e-government services are presented as a model with six levels: Listen, Notification, Pull-based Information, Communication, Transaction, and Integration levels. The model classifies the SMS-based e-government services into levels based on the direction of communication, the complexity of the services and the benefits received by citizens; the higher the level the more complex the services and the more benefits received by citizens. The SMS-based e-government model is compared to Internet-based e-government models and typical e-government use to show SMS-based e-government can deliver almost all of the service offerings of Internet-based e-government and meet the requirements of e-government users except for downloading forms. The outcome justifies the development of SMS-based e-government services.