SMS Text Messaging is very popular, and new technology that improves mobile phone bandwidth will make Multimedia Messages the new preferred communications method.
Exchanging SMS text messages, technically identified as Short Message System (SMS), but typically known as “texting”, is a simple, effortless, and convenient means to correspond to and from smartphones. Not just a exceptional manner for people to communicate, text messages can be a handy method for software applications to exchange simple messages, and even setup commands, between mobile phones. SMS doesn’t need a direct connection between mobile devices; the communications infrastructure for the process is already in position, and it functions across most mobile service providers. One characteristic of text messaging that makes it particularly handy for mobile software applications is that it utilizes mobile phone fixed identity, the phone number. This aspect offers a unique benefit over other technologies that rely on IP addresses because a mobile phone IP address can 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 cell phones. SMS text messaging is the most commonly used data application on earth, boasting about 2.4 billion active users, or three quarters of all cellular phone subscribers.
SMS as used on modern mobiles was at first defined as part of the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) series of standards in 1985 as a manner of exchanging texts of up to 160 characters, to and from GSM mobile handsets. Since then service support has expanded to include other mobile technologies such as ANSI CDMA networks and Digital AMPS, as well as satellite and landline networks. The largest number of SMS messages are mobile-to-mobile text messages, though the standard supports other types of broadcast messaging as well. Computer to mobile device SMS text messaging capabilities are also growing rapidly.
GSM was initially known as Groupe Spécial Mobile. It is the most accepted standard for mobile telephone systems on earth. The GSM Association, the promoting industry association of mobile phone carriers and manufacturers, estimates that close to 80% of the global mobile market uses the standard. GSM is used by over 3 billion people across more than two hundred countries and territories. Its pervasiveness enables international roaming agreements between mobile phone carriers, providing subscribers the benefit of their mobile devices in many parts of the world. GSM has evolved from its forerunner technologies in that both signaling and speech channels are digital. Thus GSM is considered a second generation (2G) mobile phone system. Additionally, this eases the extensive implementation of data communication applications.
The ubiquity of GSM implementation has been a benefit for consumers that are given the option to roam and switch carriers without having to replace their smartphones, and also to carriers, who can choose equipment from many equipment vendors. GSM pioneered affordable deployment of SMS texting, which is now supported on other mobile phone standards.
Newer versions of the standard are backward-compatible with the initial GSM system. Release ’97 of the standard upgraded to packet data capabilities using General Packet Radio Service (GPRS). Release ’99 launched higher speed data transmission using Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE).
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 transfer is usually billed per megabyte of datasent and received, while data transfer via traditional circuit switching is charged per unit of connection time, without regard to whether or not the user actually is using it 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 frequently called 2.5G. 2.5G is a technology bridge between the second (2G) and third (3G) generations of smartphone telephony. It provides moderate-speed data transfer, by using unused time division multiple access (TDMA) channels. Originally there was some thought to broaden 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 reaction to the earlier CDPD and i-mode packet switched cellular technologies. Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD) was a wide-area mobile data service which used unused bandwidth normally used by AMPS mobile phones. It was dropped along with with the retirement of the parent AMPS service.
CDPD was developed in the early 1990’s, with anticipation it would be a future technology. But, it had competition from existing slower but less expensive Mobitex and DataTac systems. CDPD never gained common acceptance before newer, faster standards such as GPRS gained general acceptance and became predominant.
For consumers CDPD had very limited offerings. AT&T Wireless initially offered the technology in the America 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 used by some enterprise and government networks. It was particularly successful 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 known as Enhanced GPRS (EGPRS), or IMT Single Carrier (IMT-SC), and Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolution) is a backward-compatible digital mobile phone technology that delivers superior data transmission rates on top of standard GSM. EDGE is referred to as a 3G radio technology. EDGE allows more than three-fold improvement in both the capacity and performance of GSM/GPRS networks by incorporating sophisticated methods 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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