SMS Short Message Service (GSM)
The Short Message Service was introduced in the first phase of GSM during 1991 as a simple store and forward text messaging system. Even though nearly all GSM mobile phones were capable of supporting SMS, the take up was very limited as network operators or carriers failed to market the system. However, this has all changed with tens of billions of text messages being sent each month. A significant proportion of this rapid growth can be attributed to the inclusion of SMS into youth culture. In fact it has introduced a new text language to bypass the often awkward text entry or MMI (Man Machine Interface). SMS messages are limited to 160 characters in length although it is possible to concatenate several messages to produce a much greater macro message.
