Happy 20th Birthday, Text Messaging!

Happy 20th Birthday, Text Messaging!


Remember life before cell phones? Now, think back to life before text messages…it was pretty DULL without OMG, LOL and LMBO. The quick method, short messaging service (SMS), more commonly known as text messaging, turns 20 years old today.

Former Finish civil servant Matti Makkonen conceived the thought of text messaging in 1984 but it was 22-year-old British engineer Neil Papworth who sent the first text message from a PC to a mobile device in December 3, 1992. He used Vodafone’s UK network to say “Merry Christmas.”

“We thought SMS was a clever way for a company’s staff to send simple messages to one another,” Papworth told the Daily Mail last year, “I’d never have predicted that it would spread into the consumer world… at the time it didn’t seem like a big deal.”

In the 1990s, few people had cell phones, let alone used text messaging prolifically. But by 2000, text messaging had become a hit. With approximately 8 trillion SMS messages sent to date, it’s no surprise that unlimited text message plans are so popular. Experts estimate that mobile networks will earn $726 billion from SMS text messaging over the next five years.

Happy B-Day Txt :)


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