That doesn't seem to take advantage of modern IT like Uber does:

1) Keeping a record of driver and passenger ratings (disincentivizing bad behavior on both sides)

2) Streamlined complaint resolution process

3) Remote monitoring of the ride to see if they took an unnecessarily long route

4) Payment being handled behind the scenes so you can just get in and out without stopping to pay (plus not having to do the tipping dance for Americans)

5) Getting updates as the car gets closer

6) (once at scale) Pairing people together on similar journeys to save money (UberPool/Lyft lines).

7) (not sure if the system you refer to had this) The destination already being loaded on the nav when you step in.

8) Edit: plus, apparently they collect a ton of data about rides to estimate where requests are most likely to be and encourage drivers to be there

Great, now if you go to a Tier 3 city in China will that work also? Has your SMS cab service built a worldwide network with deep liquidity? Does your cab service account for supply and demand in realtime? Does you cab service experiment in other forms of logistics from helicopters, food delivery, bike couriers? Does that service employ the entire former Carnegie Mellon Robotics department for R&D into self driving cars? If you said yes to all of these, please let me know, I would love to invest!

That's a little like comparing the classified pages to eBay. Both eBay and uber reduce friction between demand and supply and open up the size of the market far beyond its original scale.

The fact that I can use uber anywhere in the UK or US and have a cab of a particular size and luxury spec, within 10 mins, billed to my card with no messing with cash is incredible.

Their whole experience is as frictionless as possible. I don't much care for some of the attitudes conveyed by uber personnel but I wouldn't discount their achievements.