History[edit]

Initial concept[edit]

SMS messages sent monthly in the United States (in billions)

Adding text messaging functionality to mobile devices began in the early 1980s. The first
action plan of the CEPT Group GSM was approved in December 1982, requesting that,
"The services and facilities offered in the public switched telephone networks and public
data networks ... should be available in the mobile system."[6] This plan included the
exchange of text messages either directly between mobile stations, or transmitted via
message handling systems in use at that time.[7]
The SMS concept was developed in the Franco-German GSM cooperation in 1984
by Friedhelm Hillebrand and Bernard Ghillebaert.[8] The GSM is optimized for telephony,
since this was identified as its main application. The key idea for SMS was to use this
telephone-optimized system, and to transport messages on the signalling paths needed to
control the telephone traffic during periods when no signalling traffic existed. 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 the existing signalling
formats. Based on his personal observations and on analysis of the typical lengths
of postcard and Telex messages, Hillebrand argued that 160 characters was sufficient to
express most messages succinctly.[9]
SMS could be implemented in every mobile station by updating its software. Hence, a large
base of SMS-capable terminals and networks existed when people began to use SMS.[10] A
new network element required was a specialized short message service centre, and
enhancements were required to the radio capacity and network transport infrastructure to
accommodate growing SMS traffic.

Early development[edit]
The technical development of SMS was a multinational collaboration supporting the
framework of standards bodies. Through these organizations the technology was made
freely available to the whole world.[11]
The first proposal which initiated the development of SMS was made by a contribution of
Germany and France into the GSM group meeting in February 1985 in Oslo.[12] This
proposal was further elaborated in GSM subgroup WP1 Services (Chairman Martine
Alvernhe, France Telecom) based on a contribution from Germany. There were also initial
discussions in the subgroup WP3 network aspects chaired by Jan Audestad (Telenor). The
result was approved by the main GSM group in a June '85 document which was distributed
to industry.[13] The input documents on SMS had been prepared by Friedhelm
Hillebrand (Deutsche Telekom) with contributions from Bernard Ghillebaert (France
Tlcom). The definition that Friedhelm Hillebrand and Bernard Ghillebaert brought into
GSM called for the provision of a message transmission service of alphanumeric messages
to mobile users "with acknowledgement capabilities". The last three words transformed
SMS into something much more useful than the prevailing messaging paging that some in
GSM might have had in mind.[14]
SMS was considered in the main GSM group as a possible service for the new digital
cellular system. In GSM document "Services and Facilities to be provided in the GSM
System,"[3] both mobile-originated and mobile-terminated short messages appear on the
table of GSM teleservices.
The discussions on the GSM services were concluded in the recommendation GSM 02.03
"TeleServices supported by a GSM PLMN."[15] Here a rudimentary description of the three
services was given:

1. Short message Mobile Terminated (SMS-MT)/ Point-to-Point: the ability of a

network to transmit a Short Message to a mobile phone. The message can be sent
by phone or by a software application.
2. Short message Mobile Originated (SMS-MO)/ Point-to-Point: the ability of a network
to transmit a Short Message sent by a mobile phone. The message can be sent to
a phone or to a software application.
3. Short message Cell Broadcast.
The material elaborated in GSM and its WP1 subgroup was handed over in Spring 1987 to
a new GSM body called IDEG (the Implementation of Data and Telematic Services Experts
Group), which had its kickoff in May 1987 under the chairmanship of Friedhelm
Hillebrand (German Telecom). The technical standard known today was largely created by
IDEG (later WP4) as the two recommendations GSM 03.40 (the two point-to-point services
merged) and GSM 03.41 (cell broadcast).
WP4 created a Drafting Group Message Handling (DGMH), which was responsible for the
specification of SMS. Finn Trosby of Telenor chaired the draft group through its first 3
years, in which the design of SMS was established. DGMH had five to eight participants,
and Finn Trosby mentions as major contributors Kevin Holley, Eija Altonen, Didier Luizard
and Alan Cox. The first action plan[16] mentions for the first time the Technical Specification
03.40 "Technical Realisation of the Short Message Service". Responsible editor was Finn
Trosby. The first and very rudimentary draft of the technical specification was completed in
November 1987.[17] However, drafts useful for the manufacturers followed at a later stage in
the period. A comprehensive description of the work in this period is given in.[18]
The work on the draft specification continued in the following few years, where Kevin Holley
of Cellnet (now Telefnica O2 UK) played a leading role. Besides the completion of the
main specification GSM 03.40, the detailed protocol specifications on the system interfaces
also needed to be completed.

Support in other architectures[edit]

The Mobile Application Part (MAP) of the SS7 protocol included support for the transport of
Short Messages through the Core Network from its inception.[19] MAP Phase 2 expanded
support for SMS by introducing a separate operation code for Mobile Terminated Short
Message transport.[20] Since Phase 2, there have been no changes to the Short Message
operation packages in MAP, although other operation packages have been enhanced to
support CAMEL SMS control.
From 3GPP Releases 99 and 4 onwards, CAMEL Phase 3 introduced the ability for
the Intelligent Network (IN) to control aspects of the Mobile Originated Short Message
Service,[21] while CAMEL Phase 4, as part of 3GPP Release 5 and onwards, provides the IN
with the ability to control the Mobile Terminated service.[22] CAMEL allows the gsmSCP to
block the submission (MO) or delivery (MT) of Short Messages, route messages to
destinations other than that specified by the user, and perform real-time billing for the use
of the service. Prior to standardized CAMEL control of the Short Message Service, IN
control relied on switch vendor specific extensions to the Intelligent Network Application
Part (INAP) of SS7.

Early implementations[edit]
The first SMS message[23] was sent over the Vodafone GSM network in the United Kingdom
on 3 December 1992, from Neil Papworth of Sema Group (now Mavenir Systems) using a
personal computer to Richard Jarvis of Vodafone using an Orbitel 901 handset. The text of
the message was "Merry Christmas."[24]
The first commercial deployment of a short message service center (SMSC) was
by Aldiscon part of Logica (now part of Acision) with Telia (now TeliaSonera) in Sweden in
1993,[25] followed by Fleet Call (now Nextel)[26] in the US, Telenor in Norway[citation needed] and BT
Cellnet (now O2 UK)[citation needed] later in 1993. All first installations of SMS gateways were for
network notifications sent to mobile phones, usually to inform of voice mail messages.
The first commercially sold SMS service was offered to consumers, as a person-to-person
text messaging service by Radiolinja (now part of Elisa) in Finland in 1993. Most early GSM
mobile phone handsets did not support the ability to send SMS text messages, and Nokia
was the only handset manufacturer whose total GSM phone line in 1993 supported user-
sending of SMS text messages. According to Matti Makkonen, the inventor of SMS text
messages, Nokia 2010, which was released in January 1994, was the first mobile phone to
support composing SMSes easily.[27]
Initial growth was slow, with customers in 1995 sending on average only 0.4 messages per
GSM customer per month.[28] One factor in the slow takeup of SMS was that operators were
slow to set up charging systems, especially for prepaid subscribers, and eliminate billing
fraud which was possible by changing SMSC settings on individual handsets to use the
SMSCs of other operators.[citation needed] Initially, networks in the UK only allowed customers to
send messages to other users on the same network, limiting the usefulness of the service.
This restriction was lifted in 1999.[23]
Over time, this issue was eliminated by switch billing instead of billing at the SMSC and by
new features within SMSCs to allow blocking of foreign mobile users sending messages
through it. By the end of 2000, the average number of messages reached 35 per user per
month,[28] and on Christmas Day 2006, over 205 million messages were sent in the UK
alone.[29]