Radical Growth of SMS Messaging

SMS messaging was designed to ease communication and provide an alternative communication method besides voice calls. SMS messaging means the sending and receiving of simple, short text messages on compatible mobile phones or other devices.

The standards for SMS messaging was established in 1985, when GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) defined the protocols needed to send text messages of up to 160 characters. The development of the standards was a multinational cooperation, and was seen as an enhancement of the services offered by GSM networks. Today SMS messaging is enabled in networks, other than GSM, for instance, 3G, or CDMA. The unique feature of this standard is its interoperability between other networks, and mobile network providers.

The first SMS message was sent in 1992 by a young engineer from a computer to a mobile device. At first SMS messaging did not gain much popularity, however, over the years, businesses, organizations, large corporations and individuals began to realize its possibilities. Since 1992, it has become the most widespread mobile communication method throughout the world. A recent study indicates how SMS messaging became more popular worldwide, as Figure 1 below shows:

Figure 1 - Global increase in SMS messaging

As SMS gradually became a commercial industry, companies began to exploit the marketing and advertising opportunities made possible with the discrete functions and widespread availability of SMS messaging. SMS messages are now used to deliver news headlines, weather forecasts, verification numbers for registration, ordering services, paying for parking, or voting for an individual on a television show. This industry became so profitable, that today it is worth over $80 billion globally. According to statistics, the SMS traffic in 2011 will exceed 8 trillion messages. That number equals 8 thousand billion messages!

Consider the number of SMS messages that is sent in the United States alone, on a monthly basis (Figure 2):

Figure 2 - SMS messaging in USA per month

As seen by these numbers, SMS messaging gained staggering popularity during the beginning of the 21st century, and it became a widely-used communication tool for many purposes. SMS messaging is particularly popular and trendy among teenagers, so much so, that many high schools started to ban the use of mobile phones on school grounds. SMS messaging even developed its own communication form by a special language, called txtese that is often used in text messages to use up the allowed space more efficiently by abbreviating certain commonly used words or expressions.