Editing Text messaging (section)

== History ==
{{See also|SMS#Developmental history}}
The [[electrical telegraph]] systems, developed in the early 19th century, used electrical signals to send text messages. In the late 19th century, [[wireless telegraphy]] was developed using [[radio waves]].

In 1933, the German ''[[Reichspost]]'' ([[Reich]] postal service) introduced the first "[[telex]]" service.<ref>{{cite journal | title = Fifty years of telex | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=VjMgAQAAMAAJ&q=%22world%27s+first+public+teleprinter+network%22 | journal  = Telecommunication Journal | date= 1984 | volume = 51 | page = 35 | access-date = 18 May 2017 | quote = Just over fifty years ago, in October 1933, the ''Deutsche Reichspost'' as it was then known, opened the world's first public teleprinter network.}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | last1  = Herbst | first1 = Kris | last2 = Ubois | first2 = Jeff | title = The competition | newspaper = [[Network World]] | volume  = 5 | issue = 46 | date = 14 November 1988 | publisher = IDG Network World Inc | page = 68 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=exIEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA68 | issn = 0887-7661 | access-date = 29 December 2017 | quote = Telex originated in Germany and rapidly expanded to other countries after World War II.}}</ref>

The University of Hawaii began using radio to send digital information as early as 1971, using [[ALOHAnet]].{{citation needed|date=December 2012}}

[[Friedhelm Hillebrand]] conceptualised SMS in 1984 while working for [[Deutsche Telekom]]. Sitting at a typewriter at home, Hillebrand typed out random sentences and counted every letter, number, punctuation mark, and space. Almost every time, the messages contained fewer than 160 characters, thus giving the basis for the limit one could type via text messaging.<ref>{{cite web | url= http://theweek.com/article/index/237240/the-text-message-turns-20-a-brief-history-of-sms | title= The Text Message Turns 20: A Brief History of SMS|work=theweek.com | access-date = 2 February 2016 | quote = 1984 [...] Sitting at a typewriter at his home in Bonn, Germany, Friedhelm Hillebrand types random sentences and questions, counting every letter, number, and space. Almost every time, the messages amount to fewer than 160 characters — what would become the limit of early text messages — and thus the concept for the perfect-length, rapid-fire 'short message' was born. | date= 3 December 2012}}</ref> With [[Bernard Ghillebaert]] of [[France Télécom]], he developed a proposal for the [[GSM]] (Groupe Spécial Mobile) meeting in February 1985 in Oslo.<ref>GSM document 19/85, available on the GSM-SMG Archive DVD-ROM</ref> The first technical solution evolved in a GSM subgroup under the leadership of Finn Trosby. It was further developed under the [[leadership]] of Kevin Holley and Ian Harris (see [[SMS|Short Message Service]]).<ref>{{cite book|editor= Hillebrand|title= Short Message Service, the Creation of Personal Global Text Messaging|publisher= Wiley|date= 2010|isbn= 978-0-470-68865-6}}</ref> SMS forms an integral part of [[Signalling System No. 7]] (SS7).<ref>{{cite book|editor= ITU-T|title= Introduction to CCITT Signalling System No. 7|publisher= ITU|date= 1993}}</ref> Under SS7, it is a "state" with 160 characters of data, coded in the ITU-T "T.56" text format, that has a "sequence lead in" to determine different language codes and may have special character codes that permit, for example, sending simple graphs as text. This was part of ISDN ([[Integrated Services Digital Network]]), and since [[GSM]] is based on this, it made its way to the mobile phone. Messages could be sent and received on ISDN phones, and these can send SMS to any GSM phone. The possibility of doing something is one thing; implementing it is another, but systems existed in 1988 that sent SMS messages to mobile phones{{citation needed|date=February 2016}} (compare [[ND-NOTIS]]).

SMS messaging was used for the first time on 3 December 1992,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2017-12-03/after-25-years-of-sms-were-still-anxious-about-text-speak/9205734|title=It's been 25 years since the first-ever text message and the kids are alright|author=Ariel Bogle|date=3 December 2017|website=[[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]]}}</ref> when [[Neil Papworth]], a 22-year-old test engineer, used a computer to send the text message "[[Merry Christmas]]" via the [[Vodafone]] network to the phone of Richard Jarvis,<ref>{{cite news| title= 15 years of text messages, a 'cultural phenomenon' | url= https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/05/technology/05iht-sms.4.8603150.html?pagewanted=all |work= The New York Times | date= 5 December 2007 | access-date= 2 February 2010 | first= Victoria | last= Shannon}}</ref><ref name="spell">{{cite book
  | chapter = Casting a Powerful Spell: The Evolution of SMS
  | title = The Cell Phone Reader: Essays in Social Transformation
  | last1 = Snowden
  | first1 = Collette
  | editor = Anandam P. Kavoori and Noah Arceneaux
  | location = New York
  | publisher = Peter Lang
  | year = 2006
  | pages = [https://archive.org/details/cellphonereadere0000kavo/page/107 107–08]
  | chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=U8uOkAp998IC&q=Casting+a+Powerful+Spell:+The+Evolution+of+SMS&pg=PA107
  | isbn = 978-0-8204-7919-4
  | url = https://archive.org/details/cellphonereadere0000kavo/page/107
  }}</ref> who was at a party in [[Newbury, Berkshire]] celebrating the event. Papworth later said "it didn't feel momentous at all".<ref>{{Cite news |date=4 December 2017 |title='It didn't feel momentous at all,' says developer who sent world's 1st text message 25 years ago |url=https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-monday-edition-1.4431677/it-didn-t-feel-momentous-at-all-says-developer-who-sent-world-s-1st-text-message-25-years-ago-1.4431688 |access-date=3 December 2024 |work=[[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation]]}}</ref> Modern SMS text messaging is usually sent from one mobile phone to another. Finnish [[Radiolinja]] became the first network to offer a commercial person-to-person SMS text messaging service in 1994. When Radiolinja's domestic competitor, Telecom Finland (now part of [[TeliaSonera]]), also launched SMS text messaging in 1995 and the two networks offered cross-network SMS functionality, Finland became the first nation where SMS text messaging was offered on a competitive as well as a commercial basis. GSM was allowed in the United States, but the radio frequencies were blocked and awarded to US "Carriers" to use US technology, which limited development of mobile messaging services in the US. The GSM in the US had to use a frequency allocated for [[Personal Communications Service|private communication service]]s (PCS) – what the [[International Telecommunication Union|ITU]] frequency régime had blocked for DECT ([[Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications]]) – a 1,000-foot range picocell, but it survived. American Personal Communications (APC), the first GSM carrier in America, provided the first text-messaging service in the United States. Sprint Telecommunications Venture, a partnership of Sprint Corp. and three large cable-TV companies, owned 49 percent of APC. The Sprint venture was the largest single buyer at a government-run spectrum auction that raised $7.7 billion in 2005 for PCS licenses. APC operated under the brand name Sprint Spectrum and launched its service on 15 November 1995, in Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, Maryland. Vice President [[Al Gore]] in Washington, D.C., made the initial phone call to launch the network, calling Mayor [[Kurt Schmoke]] in Baltimore.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/1995/11/16/pcs-network-launched-in-baltimore-dc-area-first-system-in-nation-offers-digital-challenge-to-cellular-phone-industry/|title=PCS network launched in Baltimore-D.C. area – First system in nation offers digital challenge to cellular phone industry|first=Michael|last=Dresser|date=16 November 1995|newspaper=[[The Baltimore Sun]]|access-date=15 January 2020}}</ref>

Initial growth of text messaging worldwide was slow, with customers in 1995 sending on average only 0,4 messages per GSM customer per month.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.gsmworld.com/news/press_2001/press_releases_4.shtml|title= GSM World press release|work= gsmworld.com|date= 12 February 2001|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20020215194430/http://www.gsmworld.com/news/press_2001/press_releases_4.shtml|archive-date= 15 February 2002}}</ref> One factor in the slow take-up of SMS was that operators were slow to set up charging systems, especially for prepaid subscribers, and to eliminate billing fraud, which was possible by changing [[Short Message service center|SMSC]] settings on individual handsets to use the SMSCs of other operators.{{citation needed|date=February 2016}} Over time, this issue was eliminated by switch billing instead of billing at the SMSC and by new features within SMSCs that allowed the blocking of foreign mobile users sending messages through them.{{citation needed|date=December 2012}} SMS is available on a wide range of networks, including [[3G]] networks. However, not all text-messaging systems use SMS; some notable alternate implementations of the concept include [[SoftBank Mobile|J-Phone]]'s [[SkyMail]] and [[NTT Docomo]]'s [[Short Mail]], both in Japan. E-mail messaging from phones, as popularized by NTT Docomo's [[i-mode]] and the RIM [[BlackBerry]], also typically use standard mail protocols such as [[Simple Mail Transfer Protocol|SMTP]] over [[Internet protocol suite|TCP/IP]].<ref>{{cite web|title= TCP/IP Internetworking With 'gawk'|url= https://www.gnu.org/software/gawk/manual/gawkinet/gawkinet.html|publisher= Gnu.org}}</ref> {{As of | 2007}}, text messaging was the most widely used mobile data service, with 74% of all mobile phone users worldwide, or 2.4 billion out of 3.3 billion phone subscribers, being active users of the Short Message Service at the end of 2007. In countries such as Finland, Sweden, and Norway, over 85% of the population used SMS. The European average was about 80%, and North America was rapidly catching up, with over 60% active users of SMS {{as of | 2008 | alt = by end of 2008}}.{{citation needed|date=February 2016}} The largest average usage of the service by mobile phone subscribers occurs in the Philippines, with an average of 27 texts sent per day per subscriber.{{citation needed|date=February 2016}}