A six-level model of SMS-based e-government

SMS-based e-government is becoming popular in developed and developing countries as one of strategies to engage more citizens to use e-government services. However, there is no study predicting and explaining the acceptance of the SMS-based e-government. This paper is one of a series of three-papers investigating the opportunities and popularity of SMS-based e-government as a background of a current research project that endeavours to develop an SMS-based E-Government Acceptance Model (SEGAM). This paper presents current advances in the popularity of SMS-based e-government among local authorities in developed and developing countries by investigating to what extent SMS-based e-government could deliver existing Internet-based e-government services, and more importantly, whether these services can fulfil the actual needs of e-government services users. It represents the current available SMS-based e-government services as a model with six levels: Listen, Notification, Pull-based Information, Communication, Transaction, and Integration levels. The model classifies the SMS-based e-government systems and the levels based on the complexity of the system and the benefits received by citizens; the higher the level the more complex the system and the more benefits received by citizens. The comparisons of the SMS-based e-government model to the general Internet-based e-government models and the typical e-government use show SMS-based e-government is likely to deliver all service offerings of Internet-based e-government and the actual needs of e-government users except for downloading forms. The outcomes justify the popularity and the advance of SMS-based e-government services.