Short Message Service (SMS) is a component of the text message service of most telephone, World Wide Web, and mobile phone systems. It uses standardized communication protocols to allow landline / landline or mobile devices to exchange short text messages. SMS was the most widely used data application, with an estimated 3.5 billion active users, or about 80% of all mobile phone subscribers, at the end of 2010.
Initial development
The SMS concept was developed in the Franco-German GSM cooperation in 1984 by Friedhelm Hillebrand and Bernard Ghillebaert. GSM is optimized for telephony, since this was identified as its main application. The key idea for SMS was to use this phone-optimized system and carry messages on signaling routes necessary to control phone traffic during periods when there was no signaling traffic. In this way, unused resources in the system could be used to transport messages at minimal cost. However, it was necessary to limit the length of the messages to 128 bytes (later improved to 160 seven-bit characters) so that the messages could fit into existing signaling formats. Based on his personal observations and analysis of typical postcard and telex message lengths, Hillebrand argued that 160 characters were sufficient to express most messages succinctly.
Early development
The first proposal that initiated the development of SMS was made by a contribution from Germany and France at the GSM group meeting in February 1985 in Oslo. This proposal was further developed in the GSM WP1 Services subgroup (President Martine Alvernhe, France Telecom) on the basis of a contribution from Germany. There were also initial discussions in the WP3 network aspects subgroup chaired by Jan Audestad (Telenor). The result was approved by the main GSM group in a June 1985 document that was distributed to the industry. The input documents on SMS were prepared by Friedhelm Hillebrand (Deutsche Telekom) with contributions from Bernard Ghillebaert (France Télécom). The definition that Friedhelm Hillebrand and Bernard Ghillebaert introduced in GSM required the provision of an alphanumeric message transmission service to mobile users “with recognition capabilities”. The last three words made SMS far more useful than the prevailing messaging paging that some in GSM might have had in mind.
Early deployments
The first SMS message was sent via Vodafone’s GSM network in the UK on December 3, 1992, from Neil Papworth of Sema Group (now Mavenir Systems) using a personal computer to Richard Jarvis of Vodafone using an Orbitel 901 telephone. The text of the message was “Merry Christmas.
The first commercial deployment of a Short Message Service Center (SMSC) was carried out by Aldis with part of Logica (now part of Acision) with Telia (now TeliaSonera) in Sweden in 1993, followed by Fleet Call (now Nextel) in the USA. USA, Telenor in Norway[citation needed] and BT Cellnet (now O2 UK)[citation needed] later in 1993. All the first installations of SMS Gateways were for network notifications sent to mobile phones, generally to report voicemail messages.
Radiolinja (now part of Elisa) in Finland offered consumers the first SMS service commercially sold to consumers as a person-to-person text messaging service in 1993. Most early GSM mobile phones did not support the ability to send SMS text messages and Nokia was the only phone manufacturer whose full GSM phone line in 1993 supported the sending of SMS text messages by users. According to Matti Makkonen, the inventor of SMS texting, Nokia 2010, which was launched in January 1994, was the first mobile phone to support writing SMS easily.
SMS today
In 2010, 6.1 billion (6.1 × 1012) of SMS text messages were sent. This translates to an average of 193,000 SMS per second. SMS has become a large commercial industry, with revenues of $ 114.6 billion worldwide in 2010. The global average price for an SMS message is $ 0.11, while mobile networks charge each other rates for interconnection of at least $ 0.04 when connecting between different telephone networks.
In 2015, the actual cost of sending an SMS in Australia was found to be $ 0.00016 per SMS.
In 2014, Caktus Group developed the world’s first SMS-based voter registration system in Libya. So far, more than 1.5 million people have registered using that system, giving Libyan voters unprecedented access to the democratic process.
While SMS is still a growing market, traditional SMS is increasingly challenged by alternative messaging services such as Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Viber available on smartphones with data connections, especially in Western countries where these services are gaining popularity. It has been reported that more than 97% of smartphone owners use alternative messaging services at least once a day. Business SMS messaging, also known as application-to-peer messaging (A2P messaging) or two-way SMS, continues to grow steadily at a rate of 4% per year. Enterprise SMS applications are primarily focused on CRM and deliver highly specific service messages such as package delivery alerts, real-time notification of credit / debit card purchase confirmations to guard against fraud, and appointment confirmations. Another main source of the growing volumes of A2P messages is the two-step verification processes (also called 2-factor authentication) whereby users receive a unique passcode via SMS and are then asked to enter that passcode. online to verify your identity. .
