Texting has become a global
phenomenon. Although text messages are very short, limited to just 160
characters per message, they're one of the most popular means of communication
in the world. In 2010, 6.1 trillion SMS messages were sent, which means roughly
193000 SMS per second, according to CNN.com. The estimated income of cell phone
service providers from text messaging that same year was $114.6 billion
globally. However, very few people know when, where, and how was the system
born.
The First Steps
The concept of text
messaging through GSM networks dates back to the 1980s. The initial concept was
developed in 1984 by Friedhelm Hillebrand and Bernard Ghillebaert. The idea was
to use existing infrastructure to transmit text messages by using unused resources
in the system. This is the source of the character limit in text messaging. The
most ingenious part of the solution was that it only required the service
providers to upgrade the systems software.
However, text messaging
was implemented slowly. The first SMS message was sent on 3 December, 1992 over
the Vodafone GSM Network in the United Kingdom, and contained the words
"Merry Christmas." The first commercial SMS system was offered to
consumers in Finland in 1993. The business text grew at a snail's pace at first, in no small
part due to the limited hardware base, as most of the customers did not have
cell phones able to send and receive SMS messages.
The Service Grows
The adoption of text
messaging became faster as more customers transitioned to better, more capable
mobile phones. Another factor was that operators started setting up
reliable, transparent charging systems for text messaging that allowed them to
lift restrictions on sending text messages between service providers and reduce
the incidence of fraud.
By the end of 2000, the
average number of text messages reached 35 monthly per user. By comparison, in
1995, the average GSM customer sent only 0.4 messages per month. The use of the
service grew exponentially. By December 2006, over 205 million messages were
sent in the United Kingdom alone. The growth was boosted by expanding the text
messaging service to more networks including 3G.
The Modern-Day SMS
Text messaging is a
multi-billion dollar industry today. Text messages are used for a variety of
purposes. What started as a way for enabling communication between GSM
customers became one of the most widespread technologies across the world. Text
messages are used as security tokens, notifications, news reports, and even
tracking devices. Text messages can indeed be used to try to honor of the cell
phone. The so-called silent SMS does not show up on the display of the cell
phone, nor does it trigger the signal that a message was received. It is quite
popular, too: in 2010, the German authorities sent nearly 0.5 million of these
text messages.
However, the position of
text messaging is not unassailable. The biggest disadvantage of text messaging
is that it is very expensive: customers pay on a per-message basis. By
comparison, smart phone, tablet, and laptop users can use software that
provides the exact same functionality, or even more, completely free of charge.
As access to broadband Internet becomes more commonplace, it is likely that the
use of SMS will diminish. However, for now, it enjoys a very strong position on
the market.