Sending SMS messages, technically defined as Short Message System (SMS), but typically referred to as “texting”, is a simple, easy, and convenient system to communicate to and from mobile devices. Not just a very good system for people to communicate, SMS texting can be a useful means for software applications to exchange simple messages, and even settings commands, between cell phones. SMS does not require a direct connection between cell phones; the communications infrastructure for the system is already in place, and it functions across most mobile networks. One aspect of text messaging that makes it particularly handy for mobile software applications is that it utilizes smartphone fixed identity, the phone number. This aspect offers a distinct benefit over other technologies that rely on IP addresses because a smartphone IP address will vary depending on current network.
Short Message Service (SMS) is a communication service component of the GSM mobile communication system. It relies on standardized communications protocols that allow the exchange of short text messages between smartphones. SMS texting is the most widely used data application on earth, with about 2.4 billion active users, or three quarters of all cell phone subscribers.
SMS texting as used on modern mobiles was originally included as part of the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) series of protocols in 1985 as a means of exchanging messages of up to 160 characters, to and from GSM mobile handsets. Since then service support has extended to comprise other mobile technology such as ANSI CDMA networks and Digital AMPS, as well as satellite and landline networks. Most SMS messages are mobile-to-mobile text messages, though the standard supports other types of broadcast messaging as well. Computer to smartphone SMS text messaging capabilities are also expanding rapidly.
Global System for Mobile Communications was originally called Groupe Spécial Mobile. It is the most popular standard for mobile telephone systems on the planet. The GSM Association, the promoting industry organization of mobile phone network providers and manufacturers, estimates that approximately 80% of the world mobile market uses it. GSM is enjoyed by over 3 billion people across more than 212 countries and territories. Its pervasiveness allows international roaming agreements between mobile phone carriers, offering subscribers the use of their mobile phones in many parts of the world. GSM has evolved from its forerunner technologies in that both signaling and speech channels are digital. This means GSM is thought of as a second generation (2G) mobile phone system. Additionally, this eases the extensive implementation of data communication programs.
The ubiquity of GSM implementation has been a benefit for consumers that are given the ability to roam and switch carriers without needing to replace their mobile devices, and also to carriers, who can select equipment from a variety of equipment vendors. GSM is credited with pioneering affordable deployment of SMS, which subsequently has been supported on other mobile phone standards.
General packet radio service (GPRS) is a packet oriented mobile data service available to users of the 2G and 3G GSM. In 2G systems. GPRS data communication is typically charged per megabyte of traffictransferred, while data communication via traditional circuit switching is charged per minute of connection time, independent of whether or not the user actually is transmitting or if it is in an idle state. GPRS is a best-effort packet switched service, as opposed to circuit switching, that has assured quality of service during the connection for non-mobile users.
2G cellular systems in combination with GPRS are regularly described as 2.5G. 2.5G is a technology bridge transitioning between the second (2G) and third (3G) generations of mobile telephony. It provides moderate-speed data transfer, by using unused time division multiple access (TDMA) channels. Initially it was intended to extend GPRS to cover other standards, however these networks are converting to the GSM standard. GPRS is integrated into GSM Release 97 and newer releases.
GPRS was created as a GSM response to the earlier CDPD and i-mode packet switched cellular technology. Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD) was a wide-area mobile data service which used unused bandwidth normally used by AMPS mobile phones. The service was dropped in conjunction with the retirement of the parent AMPS service.
CDPD was developed in the early 1990’s, and was seen as a future technology. However, it had competition from existing slower but less expensive Mobitex and DataTac systems. CDPD never gained general acceptance and in time newer, faster standards such as GPRS earned widespread acceptance and started dominating.
For consumers CDPD had little to offer. AT&T Wireless first offered the technology in the United States under the brandname PocketNet, one of the very first consumer wireless web service products. Cingular Wireless later offered CDPD under the Wireless Internet brand (as opposed to Wireless Internet Express, Cingular Wireless GPRS/EDGE data). AT&T Wireless PocketNet was generally considered a failure. But, CDPD was adopted into several enterprise and government networks. It was particularly popular as a first-generation wireless data solution for telemetry devices (machine to machine communications) and for public safety mobile data terminals.
Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) (also called Enhanced GPRS (EGPRS), or IMT Single Carrier (IMT-SC), and Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolution) is a backward-compatible digital mobile device technology that provides better data transmission rates on top of standard GSM. EDGE is referred to as a 3G radio technology. EDGE allows more than three-fold boost in both the capacity and performance of GSM/GPRS networks by using sophisticated ways of coding and transmitting data, that produce higher bit-rates per radio channel. EDGE delivers broadband performance and supports high bandwidth data applications such as Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS).
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