What is SMS?

The Short Message Service (SMS) is the ability to send and receive text messages to and from mobile telephones. The text can comprise of words or numbers or an alphanumeric combination. SMS was created as part of the GSM Phase 1 standard. The first short 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 message is up to 160 characters is length when Latin alphabets are used, and 70 characters in length when non-Latin alphabets such as Arabic and Chinese are used.

How popular is SMS?

Billions of messages are sent each year by mobile users in Europe, Asia, and South America. For example in the United Kingdom, the average monthly volume of SMS messages sent between mobile phone customers is 2 billion. The total usage for the United States is estimated to be at 1 billion messages per year.

Legend Mobile has developed and deployed premium SMS services. Around the world, consumers chat, shop, get stock quotes, scores, date, and ringtones via SMS. Legend Mobile expects to offer additional products and services as SMS adoption grows and develops in the American market.