Talk:SMS

History

The 'no one person/organisation invented SMS' line is a cop-out. Could we have more details about the first phone manufacturer to support text messaging, first network to carry it. Does anyone own any patents? Which country was it first ontroduced in. There are some more useful details that could complete this section.

Actually, SMS was invented by just one person, in 1982-1983 by a Finn called Matti Makkonen, who brought the idea to Nordic mobile phone workgroup, which presented it in 1984 in GSM WP3. (References: Finnish wikipedia, http://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tekstiviesti and pretty much any web site)

Clash lyrics

Re: Clash lyrics text mistaken for terrorist plot: The the sun articlepreviously linked to has been archived, needing a password to access. This article seems to have indicated that the police monitor text messages. A Guardian article covering the same incident indicates that the text message was sent to the wrong number and the recipient reported it to the police.

Previous text:

• In June 2004, a British punk rock fan was questioned by police, who had intercepted a text message containing lyrics from "Tommy Gun" by The Clash - confirming that text messages are being monitored for terrorist activity. 1

Currency

WRT the recent edit, it just seems to me that when discussing an Australian example of relative pricing, it seems odd to be using USD. --Robert Merkel 03:30 Jan 8, 2003 (UTC)

Somebody Americanised (US-ised) it for no good reason. (The point is the ratio, not the actual values.) Reverted. Andy G 22:45 9 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Message lengths

"To avoid the even shorter message lengths available when using Cyrillic letters, some Russians use the Latin alphabet for their own language." - this doesn't seem to make any sense. Why would *users* want to *avoid* shorter message lengths? Users *like* short messages. Anyone know what the intended sense is? --AW

You get 160 character messages in the Latin alphabet, but only 70 in cyrillics. So they don't use cyrillics. Sorry I wasn't very clear; I've tried re-wording to "limited message lengths". Andy G 00:23 10 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Segment limit practical maximum

The technical details section states "3 to 4 segment messages are the practical maximum". While this may have been true several years ago, it is no longer... people routinely send 6-segment messages, which can be sent by most (if not all) Nokia mobile phones on the market now, as well as many other brands - some of which allow 8-segment messages (e.g. Orange SPV). I am therefore changing the quoted part of the sentence to read "6 to 8 segment messages are the practical maximum", since people send such messages today without many reported problems. --Buyoof 00:20, 19 June 2006 (UTC)

US useage

Why is SMS relatively less used in the United States? Den fjättrade ankan 22:05, 19 Oct 2003 (UTC)

I remembering reading on Slashdot that SMS was less used due to calls costing less than SMS or something like that. -- hoshie 07:45, 26 Nov 2003 (UTC)

SMS usage is less in the US for a number of reasons, these are a couple -

1. The low number of Pre-Paid phones, in Europe, the youth market played a huge role in the growth of SMS. 2. Not all Carriers (Operators) are GSM, therefore the interconnect and compatibility of SMS between networks is hampered. 3. Phone Compatability, it's only recently that all phones have supported this technology. 4. Pricing models, some carriers still charge the receive (and not the sender) to use SMS. Which is plainly just bezarre.

---User:Rmalcolm:Rmalcolm 10 September 2005 (GMT)

Some U.S. carriers charge 5 or 10 cents on both ends, thus discouraging both the sending and receiving of text messages. A pricing model like that of Singapore's (according to the article) would probably be far more successful in the U.S. (first few hundred messages free, then charge).

Also, in response to the Push-to-Talk argument, text messaging has its advantages in being discrete.

UK TV Shows

When a TV show (in the UK at least) invites viewers to send in votes or comments via sms, sometimes the number given is shorter than the usual 11-digits [(07xx) xxx xxxx] Anyone know why? Adambisset 13:29, 29 Oct 2004 (UTC)

5 digit SMS numbers are popular both in the UK and the US (and possibly other countries, though I don't know about that), simply because they're easier to remember, etc. I assume that companies can purchase/rent these 5 digit numbers.

Actually a 5 digit number in the UK (either starting with 8 or 6) indicates that this is a Premium Shortcode, which can be ordered from each Operator and used for a fee. Usually these shortcodes are setup as MO billed, as no content is being delivered which means the Sucess biling ratio is likely to be higher as messages will be billed immediately. ---User:Rmalcolm:Rmalcolm 10 September 2005 (GMT)

Technical details

This article seems a little short on technical details. How do text messages get from phone to phone, exactly? Where is the standard specified? Are there successor standards in development? -- Beland 23:51, 27 Dec 2004 (UTC)

OK, the intro paragraph here says that the GSM collection of standards originally defined the Short Message Service, but that the definition is now being used elsewhere, as well. So that question's answered.

After working on GSM services, I discovered that from GSM phones, SMSes go via a GSM data protocol to the Short message service centre at the phone company, and then from there, SMPP may or may not be involved to get it to a peer SMSC or some service on the Internet. The SMS Tutorial in the External links section provides a lot more information; it would be a good source for rounding out this article.

The successor standard, MMS, should be mentioned in the body of the article.

As for the shorter number business, I assume the SMS protocol requires that the recipient's address be an E.164 number (a standard phone number) and the numbers given on the air just happen to be unusually short (see Special Service Numbers at UK telephone numbering plan). The 3GPP spec is on 3gpp.org (though it might help to read the above-mentioned tutorial before trying to find it). It would be useful to check and include this information in the article. -- Beland 16:13, 9 Jan 2005 (UTC)

This has already been stated, but, it seems a little short on tech details. I came looking for an answer as to if the messages flew encrypted or in plain text, and it's not discussed at all. It's mentioned that SMS messaging follows the GSM spec, but it doesn't point to said spec anywhere near where it's mentioned. -rafa 22:10, 19 Feb 2005 (UTC)

GSM messages aren't encrypted, but are usually in 7-bit characters. Every seven octets (bytes) can therefore hold eight characters. It's done for compression rather than for obfuscation, but it does mean that the "encoded" text is not immediately obvious to a casual "hacker". It's somewhat similar to leaving the key under (or maybe on top of) the doormat rather than in the lock. There's nothing to prevent an application running on top of SMS from encrypting messages, but it's not a standard part of the protocol - in fact txt-speak could be said to be a sort of encryption. SMeeds 23:48, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

Quite a bizarre rambling you've written there, sir. SMS is plaintext and any PDU reader worth its salt (even Ethereal) will trivially display 7-bit characters. However, during actual transmission SMS travels over the GSM radio interface, which is encrypted, and it's thus quite difficult to snoop on somebody else's SMSes unless you have access to the core network. Jpatokal 14:06, 20 February 2006 (UTC)

I didn't think I rambled much on this occasion, though I am prone to it. I am aware of air interface encrytpion, but know little of it. My areas of expertise are messaging and fraud (AUC and EIR principally). From my viewpoint I see the vulnerable area as the SMSC. It is very easy to write a little programme on the SMSC to decode the 7-bit encoded messages. When I was involved in developing an SMSC we had a tool for doing just that - it was initially for debugging purposes, though it was later used in support of the security services of certain countries. Nevertheless, I understand that while using it for debugging, some interesting texts were seen such as covert communications between senior members of the operator's staff and their extra-marital "partners". As with email, don't write anything in a text message you wouldn't put on a postcard (i.e. for the postman to see)!! SMeeds 00:12, 21 February 2006 (UTC)

SMS?

In phrases such as "18 billion SMS were sent in 2001" it would be more correct to use "SM" or "short message" rather than "SMS". "SMS" expands to "Short Message Service" and is the service provided by the "SMSC" (Short Message Service Centre) rather than the message itself. I haven't changed the article on this basis, because SMS may have come into common usage in this sense. --SMeeds 11:56, 4 May 2005 (UTC)

The accepted format for this is SMS messages, or at least that's how I've heard it used, and that makes sense gramatically. I've changed the article to match.

Clarification

US Usage figures

The article states "only 13 messages were sent by the average user in 2003 [in the US]". This is unclear as to whether this means what it states literally, i.e. 13 messages in the whole year, or if it is an error, and the figure refers to the average monthly figure, as is with the figures stated earlier in the section. On it's own, the paragraph is clear, but in light of the fact that figures were stated recently that were monthly, it would be helpful to explicitly state the time period involved. --me_and 2 July 2005 23:57 (UTC)

Unclear statement

The statement "Classic cannon game and similar are quite suitable for that kind of entertainment." under popularity doesn't seem to make sense, but without knowing what it is trying to say, I can't correct it. I've removed it in the meantime, but if anyone can clarify and add the text back in, that would be preferable. --me_and 2 July 2005 23:57 (UTC)

Malaysian\ Islamic law

The two sections relating to it seem to be unclear.

Payment

Is it possible to charge people extra for sending you an SMS? I mean, could I i.e. develop a dictionary service where I would charge 40 cents per SMS a customer sends me?

Yes, this is known as Premium SMS and comes in two flavours, MT Billing (the message is billed when it terminates on the handset) or MO billing where the message is billed when the request leaves the handset. For a dictionary service, I would suggest MT billing, as the end user would only get billed when he receives the definition to his question. If he / she never receives the answer they won't get billed and you won't receive any money. ---User:Rmalcolm:Rmalcolm 10 September 2005 (GMT)

Mandarin Chinese

Some clarification is apparently needed in section 5 (Txt speak). This paragraph bothers me slightly:

In Mandarin Chinese, numbers that sound similar to words are used in place of those words. For example, the numbers 521 in Chinese ("wu er yi") sound like the words for "I love you" ("wo ai ni"). The sequence 748 ("qi si ba") sounds like the curse for "drop dead".

To Western ears, "wu er yi" doesn't seem very similar to "wo ai ni"--kind of like if I were to write 582, intending it to mean "I hate you". I suspect tones are important here--if the corresponding syllables in the sentences had the same tones, it would make a lot more sense--but this is pure deduction from my part, and I'd appreciate if someone can verify this. If I'm actually wrong, please disregard all of this.

Anyway, to make this truly comprehensible, we should include tones in the transliteration (and possibly add a short explanation of why they're important). Mandarin speakers wanted, in other words. EldKatt (Talk) 15:51, 13 October 2005 (UTC)

UK Popularity

If someone should feel so inclined to add such details, 82m messages were sent per day in the UK in 2005. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4582060.stm violet/riga (t) 22:23, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

History

Regarding: "One factor in the takeup of SMS was that operators were slow to eliminate billing fraud which was possible by changing SMSC settings on individual handsets to the SMSC's of other operators. Over time, this issue was eliminated by switch-billing instead of billing at the SMSC and by new features within SMSC's to allow blocking of foreign mobile users sending messages through it." This seems to be misplaced in the history section, it is not dated and somehow doesn't appear relevant. Comments? Colin99 08:54, 14 January 2006 (UTC)

It is not my statement, so I am not defending, but discussing it. It is a historical loophole in that it existed since the start of SMS and has now been "fixed". I suggest therefore that it belongs under "History". The only thing that is missing is an indication of the date when the hole was plugged. I would guess that it is different for different operators (and certainly for different SMSC and network vendors), and that the exact date is not published, but maybe someone can add an indication of it. SMeeds 09:24, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

Active editors: Have you thought of writing...

...an article about GPS/SMS bugs? These tiny devices, hidden somewhere at your car, determine its position via GPS and transmit the coordinates via GSM's (or other standards') SMS service to your surveillant(s). They are apparently widely abused by the LEC, secret services or private snoops, thereby infringing on basic civil liberties. Also the aspect of possible counter-weapons could be discussed.

Go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Global_Positioning_System and check out '14: GPS tracking'. Feel free to contact me directly, if you prefer.

Michael

http://worldimprover.net/EN/en8.html

I know we're not a how-to, but...

...this article would really gain from a step-by-step description of how one person would typically send a text message to another (e.g., Person A needs to know Person B's cell phone number; Person A goes into a menu on his her mobile phone for sending a text message; etc.). I'm not the one to write this, because I've literally never sent a text message by phone (bizarre, given that I'm a software developer, but, hey, I'm old). - Jmabel | Talk 17:45, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

I don't think it's possible to give generic instructions for this, every phone is different and most have about a million shortcuts. Eg. if I get a new message, I can just hit the right button a few times to automatically create a reply to the sender. Jpatokal 22:26, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

SMS-CB

There's a brief mention in the article of GSM 03.41 Short Message Service - Cell Broadcast (SMS-CB). Is this ever used, and can we have some detail on it? 86.136.3.184 14:37, 12 July 2006 (UTC)

Flash SMS

Article lacks mention of Flash SMS (SMS that appear when received without any user information).