The Short Message Service (SMS) is the ability to send and receive text messages to and from mobile telephones. The text messages can comprise of words or numbers or an alphanumeric combination. SMS was created as part of the GSM Phase 1 standard. The first short test message is believed to have been sent in December 1992 from a Personal Computer (PC) to a mobile phone on the Vodafone GSM network in the UK. Each short text message is up to 160 characters in length when Latin alphabets are used, and 70 characters in length when non-Latin alphabets such as Arabic and Chinese are used.

Since its emergence in the early 90’s, SMS text messaging has established itself as the “Cinderella” of the global communication industry, the popularity of its use, and the growth rates it exhibited surprised almost everyone. Today, it is a cultural phenomenon no business on earth can afford to ignore.

Europe was the first continent to be taken by the SMS text messaging storm. Today, the major volume growth regions in the world are China, India, and South America. SMS text messaging is one of the few services in consumer history that has grown very fast without corresponding decreases in pricing. Usually- even in the case of voice mobile phones- price reductions in the cost of the phones and phone service have led to increases in usage. Whilst these factors have helped to bring younger people into the mobile market, the price of SMS itself stayed steady because the networks were having trouble handling the volumes of messages being sent and dared not reduce prices.