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113-640: Developed as part of the GSM standards, and based on the SS7 signalling protocol, SMS rolled out on digital cellular networks starting in 1993 and was originally intended for customers to receive alerts from their carrier/operator . The service allows users to send and receive text messages of up to 160 characters, originally to and from GSM phones and later also CDMA and Digital AMPS ; it has since been defined and supported on newer networks, including present-day 5G ones. Using SMS gateways , messages can be transmitted over

226-518: A broadband-internet connection. Umbrella cells are used to cover shadowed regions of smaller cells and to fill in gaps in coverage between those cells. Cell horizontal radius varies – depending on antenna height, antenna gain , and propagation conditions – from a couple of hundred meters to several tens of kilometers. The longest distance the GSM specification supports in practical use is 35 kilometres (22 mi). There are also several implementations of

339-559: A memorandum of understanding in Copenhagen to develop and deploy a common cellular telephone system across Europe, and EU rules were passed to make GSM a mandatory standard. The decision to develop a continental standard eventually resulted in a unified, open, standard-based network which was larger than that in the United States. In February 1987 Europe produced the first agreed GSM Technical Specification. Ministers from

452-493: A 50-50% joint venture named BuyIn for regrouping their procurement operations and benefiting from economies of scale . In April 2013, T-Mobile US and MetroPCS merged their operations in the United States . In February 2014, Deutsche Telekom acquired the remaining parts of its T-Mobile Czech Republic division for around €800 million. The size of the remaining stake was numbered at 40 percent. In December 2014, it

565-413: A business phone number (traditional landline) and receive a SMS in return. Providing customers with the ability to text to a phone number allows organizations to offer new services that deliver value. Examples include chat bots, and text enabled customer service and call centers. A Flash SMS is a type of SMS that appears directly on the main screen without user interaction and is not automatically stored in

678-465: A confirmation of receipt from the target device, and users are often not informed of the specific type of success being reported. SMS is a stateless communication protocol in which every SMS message is considered entirely independent of other messages. Enterprise applications using SMS as a communication channel for stateful dialogue (where an MO reply message is paired to a specific MT message) requires that session management be maintained external to

791-523: A donation to charity, and much more. Additionally, an intermediary service can facilitate a text-to-voice conversion to be sent to landlines . In 2014, Caktus Group developed the world's first SMS-based voter registration system in Libya. As of February 2015 more than 1.5 million people have registered using that system, providing Libyan voters with unprecedented access to the democratic process. SMS enablement allows individuals to send an SMS message to

904-664: A generic term for the plethora of G mobile phone technologies evolved from it. In 1983, work began to develop a European standard for digital cellular voice telecommunications when the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT) set up the Groupe Spécial Mobile (GSM) committee and later provided a permanent technical-support group based in Paris . Five years later, in 1987, 15 representatives from 13 European countries signed

1017-437: A large base of SMS-capable terminals and networks existed when people began to use SMS. A new network element required was a specialized short message service centre, and enhancements were required to the radio capacity and network transport infrastructure to accommodate growing SMS traffic. The technical development of SMS was a multinational collaboration supporting the framework of standards bodies. Through these organizations

1130-558: A leading role. Besides the completion of the main specification GSM 03.40 , the detailed protocol specifications on the system interfaces also needed to be completed. The first SMS message was sent over the Vodafone GSM network in the United Kingdom on 3 December 1992, from Neil Papworth of Sema Group (now Mavenir Systems ) using a personal computer to Richard Jarvis of Vodafone using an Orbitel 901 handset. The text of

1243-426: A mast or a building above average rooftop level. Micro cells are cells whose antenna height is under average rooftop level; they are typically deployed in urban areas. Picocells are small cells whose coverage diameter is a few dozen meters; they are mainly used indoors. Femtocells are cells designed for use in residential or small-business environments and connect to a telecommunications service provider 's network via

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1356-497: A message will actually be delivered to its recipient, but delay or complete loss of a message is uncommon, typically affecting less than 5 percent of messages. Some providers allow users to request delivery reports, either via the SMS settings of most modern phones, or by prefixing each message with *0# or *N#. However, the exact meaning of confirmations varies from reaching the network, to being queued for sending, to being sent, to receiving

1469-519: A method of text communication: by the end of 2010, it was the most widely used data application with an estimated 3.5 billion active users, or about 80% of all mobile phone subscribers. More recently, SMS has become increasingly challenged by newer proprietary instant messaging services; RCS has been designated as the potential open standard successor to SMS. SMS technology originated from radio telegraphy in radio memo pagers that used standardized phone protocols. These were defined in 1986 as part of

1582-554: A new GSM body called IDEG (the Implementation of Data and Telematic Services Experts Group), which had its kickoff in May 1987 under the chairmanship of Friedhelm Hillebrand (German Telecom). The technical standard known today was largely created by IDEG (later WP4) as the two recommendations GSM 03.40 (the two point-to-point services merged) and GSM 03.41 (cell broadcast). WP4 created a Drafting Group Message Handling (DGMH), which

1695-470: A person and thus to create a complete movement profile. They do not show up on a display, nor trigger any acoustical signal when received. Their primary purpose was to deliver special services of the network operator to any cell phone. In March 2001, Dutch police in Amsterdam attempted to fight increasing cell phone theft by sending an SMS every three minutes to a phone that has been reported stolen, with

1808-456: A problem for any open-source GSM implementation, because it is not possible for GNU or any other free software distributor to guarantee immunity from all lawsuits by the patent holders against the users. Furthermore, new features are being added to the standard all the time which means they have patent protection for a number of years. The original GSM implementations from 1991 may now be entirely free of patent encumbrances, however patent freedom

1921-658: A rare unity and speed guided by four public officials: Armin Silberhorn (Germany), Stephen Temple (UK), Philippe Dupuis (France), and Renzo Failli (Italy). In 1989 the Groupe Spécial Mobile committee was transferred from CEPT to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). The IEEE/RSE awarded to Thomas Haug and Philippe Dupuis the 2018 James Clerk Maxwell medal for their "leadership in

2034-481: A relationship between two parts of the algorithm. The researchers found that this relationship was very unlikely to have happened if it was not intentional. This may have been done in order to satisfy European controls on export of cryptographic programs. The GSM systems and services are described in a set of standards governed by ETSI , where a full list is maintained. Several open-source software projects exist that provide certain GSM features: Patents remain

2147-462: A specified geographical area. Cell broadcast is the technology behind Wireless Emergency Alerts in the US which is used for public safety messages and AMBER alerts, and similar public safety messages in other countries . These messages are similar to SMS messages. Messages are sent to a short message service center (SMSC), which provides a " store and forward " mechanism. It attempts to send messages to

2260-481: A stronger one. Since 2000, different efforts have been made in order to crack the A5 encryption algorithms. Both A5/1 and A5/2 algorithms have been broken, and their cryptanalysis has been revealed in the literature. As an example, Karsten Nohl developed a number of rainbow tables (static values which reduce the time needed to carry out an attack) and have found new sources for known plaintext attacks . He said that it

2373-432: A subscriber's phone using an Email-to-SMS gateway . Additionally, many carriers, including AT&T Mobility , T-Mobile USA , Sprint , and Verizon Wireless , offer the ability to do this through their respective websites. For example, an AT&T subscriber whose phone number was 555-555-5555 would receive emails addressed to 5555555555@txt.att.net as text messages. Subscribers can easily reply to these SMS messages, and

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2486-443: A term referring to inexperienced individuals utilizing readily available hardware and software. The vulnerability arises from the accessibility of tools such as a DVB-T TV tuner, posing a threat to both mobile and network users. Despite the term "script kiddies" implying a lack of sophisticated skills, the consequences of their attacks on GSM can be severe, impacting the functionality of cellular networks . Given that GSM continues to be

2599-598: A variety of alphabets: the default GSM 7-bit alphabet , the 8-bit data alphabet , and the 16-bit UCS-2 or UTF-16 alphabets. Depending on which alphabet the subscriber has configured in the handset, this leads to the maximum individual short message sizes of 160 7- bit characters, 140 8-bit characters, or 70 16-bit characters. GSM 7-bit alphabet support is mandatory for GSM handsets and network elements, but characters in languages such as Hindi, Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, or Cyrillic alphabet languages (e.g., Russian, Ukrainian, Serbian, Bulgarian, etc.) must be encoded using

2712-477: A vendor-specific extension of the GSM specification and there are multiple competing standards, although Nokia 's Smart Messaging is common. SMS is used for M2M ( Machine to Machine ) communication. For instance, there is an LED display machine controlled by SMS, and some vehicle tracking companies use SMS for their data transport or telemetry needs. SMS usage for these purposes is slowly being superseded by GPRS services owing to their lower overall cost. GPRS

2825-399: Is 4.615 ms. TDMA noise is interference that can be heard on speakers near a GSM phone using TDMA, audible as a buzzing sound. The transmission power in the handset is limited to a maximum of 2 watts in GSM 850/900 and 1 watt in GSM 1800/1900 . GSM has used a variety of voice codecs to squeeze 3.1 kHz audio into between 7 and 13 kbit/s. Originally, two codecs, named after

2938-590: Is a standard developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to describe the protocols for second-generation ( 2G ) digital cellular networks used by mobile devices such as mobile phones and tablets. GSM is also a trade mark owned by the GSM Association . " GSM " may also refer to the voice codec initially used in GSM. It was first implemented in Finland in December 1991. By

3051-506: Is based on multiple agreements with mobile carriers to exchange two-way SMS traffic into and out of the operator's SMSC , also known as "local termination model". Aggregators lack direct access into the SS7 protocol, which is the protocol where the SMS messages are exchanged. SMS messages are delivered to the operator's SMSC, but not the subscriber's handset; the SMSC takes care of further handling of

3164-426: Is called SIM locking and is implemented by a software feature of the phone. A subscriber may usually contact the provider to remove the lock for a fee, utilize private services to remove the lock, or use software and websites to unlock the handset themselves. It is possible to hack past a phone locked by a network operator. In some countries and regions (e.g. Brazil and Germany ) all phones are sold unlocked due to

3277-625: Is lower: 153 for 7-bit encoding, 134 for 8-bit encoding and 67 for 16-bit encoding. The receiving handset is then responsible for reassembling the message and presenting it to the user as one long message. While the standard theoretically permits up to 255 segments, 10 segments is the practical maximum with some carriers, and long messages are often billed as equivalent to multiple SMS messages. In some cases 127 segments are supported, but software limitations in some SMS applications do not permit this. Some providers have offered length-oriented pricing schemes for messages, although that type of pricing structure

3390-477: Is needed indoors, as in shopping centers or airports. However, this is not a prerequisite, since indoor coverage is also provided by in-building penetration of radio signals from any nearby cell. GSM networks operate in a number of different carrier frequency ranges (separated into GSM frequency ranges for 2G and UMTS frequency bands for 3G), with most 2G GSM networks operating in the 900 MHz or 1800 MHz bands. Where these bands were already allocated,

3503-443: Is not certain due to the United States' "first to invent" system that was in place until 2012. The "first to invent" system, coupled with "patent term adjustment" can extend the life of a U.S. patent far beyond 20 years from its priority date. It is unclear at this time whether OpenBTS will be able to implement features of that initial specification without limit. As patents subsequently expire, however, those features can be added into

SMS - Misplaced Pages Continue

3616-506: Is offered by smaller telco players as a route of sending SMS text to reduce the cost of SMS texting internationally. The Mobile Application Part (MAP) of the SS7 protocol included support for the transport of Short Messages through the Core Network from its inception. MAP Phase 2 expanded support for SMS by introducing a separate operation code for Mobile Terminated Short Message transport. Since Phase 2, there have been no changes to

3729-468: Is on the marketing of complex services and industry solutions. Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier is formerly known as Deutsche Telekom International Sales and Solutions. It is an international wholesale arm of Deutsche Telekom. The products include Voice Termination, Ethernet, IP-Transit, Mobile and Roaming as well as In-flight Internet Access for the aviation industry. It operates a Tier-1 network . Together with Inmarsat and Nokia, Deutsche Telekom develops

3842-418: Is optimized for telephony, since this was identified as its main application. The key idea for SMS was to use this telephone-optimized system, and to transport messages on the signalling paths needed to control the telephone traffic during periods when no signalling traffic existed. In this way, unused resources in the system could be used to transport messages at minimal cost. However, it was necessary to limit

3955-486: Is possible to build "a full GSM interceptor   ... from open-source components" but that they had not done so because of legal concerns. Nohl claimed that he was able to intercept voice and text conversations by impersonating another user to listen to voicemail , make calls, or send text messages using a seven-year-old Motorola cellphone and decryption software available for free online. GSM uses General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) for data transmissions like browsing

4068-413: Is rapidly disappearing. SMS gateway providers facilitate SMS traffic between businesses and mobile subscribers, including SMS for enterprises, content delivery, and entertainment services involving SMS, e.g. TV voting. Considering SMS messaging performance and cost, as well as the level of messaging services, SMS gateway providers can be classified as aggregators or SS7 providers. The aggregator model

4181-511: Is said to be in use on some more modern networks. If used with USIM to prevent connections to fake base stations and downgrade attacks , users will be protected in the medium term, though migration to 128-bit GEA/4 is still recommended. The first public cryptanalysis of GEA/1 and GEA/2 (also written GEA-1 and GEA-2) was done in 2021. It concluded that although using a 64-bit key, the GEA-1 algorithm actually provides only 40 bits of security, due to

4294-465: Is since held by public shareholders. In September 2021, Deutsche Telekom sold T-Mobile Netherlands for €5.1 billion to the investment companies Apax Partners and Warburg Pincus . In September 2022, Deutsche Telekom is expanding its activities in the field of blockchain technology. DT’s subsidiary, T-Systems Multimedia Solutions provides the Ethereum Network with infrastructure in

4407-400: Is structured into several discrete sections: GSM utilizes a cellular network , meaning that cell phones connect to it by searching for cells in the immediate vicinity. There are five different cell sizes in a GSM network: The coverage area of each cell varies according to the implementation environment. Macro cells can be regarded as cells where the base-station antenna is installed on

4520-511: Is that, in America, talk is cheap. Because local calls on land lines are usually free, wireless operators have to offer big “bundles” of minutes—up to 5,000 minutes per month—as part of their monthly pricing plans to persuade subscribers to use mobile phones instead. Texting first took off in other parts of the world among cost-conscious teenagers who found that it was cheaper to text than to call [..] Free local calls also make logging on to

4633-584: Is the world's fifth-largest telecommunications company and biggest in Europe by revenue. As of April 2020 , the German government held a direct 14.5% stake in company stock and another 17.4% through the government bank KfW . On 4th June 2024, the German government reduced its total shareholding to 27.8%. The company is a component of the EURO STOXX 50 stock market index . The Deutsche Bundespost

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4746-457: The 3GPP developed third-generation ( 3G ) UMTS standards, followed by the fourth-generation ( 4G ) LTE Advanced and the fifth-generation 5G standards, which do not form part of the ETSI GSM standard. Beginning in the late 2010s, various carriers worldwide started to shut down their GSM networks . Nevertheless, as a result of the network's widespread use, the acronym "GSM" is still used as

4859-591: The Nokia 2010 , which was released in January 1994, was the first mobile phone to support composing SMSes easily. Initial growth was slow, with customers in 1995 sending on average only 0.4 messages per GSM customer per month. Initially, networks in the UK only allowed customers to send messages to other users on the same network , limiting the usefulness of the service. This restriction was lifted in 1999. Over time, this issue

4972-531: The Philippines by 2001 and the country was dubbed the "texting capital of the world", partly helped by large numbers of free text messages offered by the mobile operators in monthly subscriptions. SMS adoption was limited to parts of Europe and Asia during these earlier years, with U.S. adoption being low partly due to incompatible networks and cheap voice calls relative to other countries. The Economist wrote in 2003, as noted by an analyst: The short answer

5085-664: The Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) or PSTN via Interworking and Gateway MSCs . Subscriber-originated messages are transported from a handset to a service center, and may be destined for mobile users, subscribers on a fixed network, or Value-Added Service Providers (VASPs) , also known as application-terminated. Subscriber-terminated messages are transported from the service center to the destination handset, and may originate from mobile users, from fixed network subscribers, or from other sources such as VASPs. On some carriers non-subscribers can send messages to

5198-585: The RIM BlackBerry , also typically uses standard mail protocols such as SMTP over TCP/IP . The Short Message Service—Point to Point (SMS-PP) —was originally defined in GSM recommendation 03.40, which is now maintained in 3GPP as TS 23.040. GSM 03.41 (now 3GPP TS 23.041) defines the Short Message Service—Cell Broadcast (SMS-CB) , which allows messages (advertising, public information, etc.) to be broadcast to all mobile users in

5311-433: The 16-bit UCS-2 character encoding (see Unicode ). Routing data and other metadata is additional to the payload size. Larger content ( concatenated SMS , multipart or segmented SMS, or "long SMS") can be sent using multiple messages, in which case each message will start with a User Data Header (UDH) containing segmentation information. Since UDH is part of the payload, the number of available characters per segment

5424-1065: The 160 character limit of SMS messages. Usage of SMS for mobile data services became increasingly prominent in the early 2000s due to its ubiquity, reliability, and cold reception of the newer WAP standard. (see Premium-rated services below). In the early and mid 2000s, Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) was developed as an improved version of SMS that supports sending of pictures and video. SMS has been increasingly challenged by Internet Protocol -based messaging services with additional features for modern mobile devices, such as Facebook Messenger , WhatsApp , Telegram , or WeChat . These services run independently from mobile network operators and typically don't provide cross-platform messaging capabilities like SMS or email does. For example, between 2010 and 2022, SMS telecom revenue in India dropped 94 percent, while "revenue share per user from data usage...grew over 10 times.", although in some regions such as North America SMS continues to be used by over 80 percent of

5537-529: The 3GPP. GSM, for the first time, set a common standard for Europe for wireless networks. It was also adopted by many countries outside Europe. This allowed subscribers to use other GSM networks that have roaming agreements with each other. The common standard reduced research and development costs, since hardware and software could be sold with only minor adaptations for the local market. Telstra in Australia shut down its 2G GSM network on 1 December 2016,

5650-561: The 850 MHz and 1900 MHz bands were used instead (for example in Canada and the United States). In rare cases the 400 and 450 MHz frequency bands are assigned in some countries because they were previously used for first-generation systems. For comparison, most 3G networks in Europe operate in the 2100 MHz frequency band. For more information on worldwide GSM frequency usage, see GSM frequency bands . Regardless of

5763-512: The GSM System, " both mobile-originated and mobile-terminated short messages appear on the table of GSM teleservices. The discussions on the GSM services were concluded in the recommendation GSM 02.03 " TeleServices supported by a GSM PLMN . " Here a rudimentary description of the three services was given: The material elaborated in GSM and its WP1 subgroup was handed over in Spring 1987 to

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5876-653: The Global System for Mobile Communications ( GSM ) series of standards. The first SMS message was sent on 3 December 1992, when Neil Papworth , a test engineer for Sema Group , sent "Merry Christmas" to the Orbitel 901 phone of colleague Richard Jarvis. Adding text messaging functionality to mobile devices began in the early 1980s. The first action plan of the CEPT Group GSM was approved in December 1982, requesting that "The services and facilities offered in

5989-693: The Hellenic telecommunication operator OTE , which also have shares in several other companies like Telekom Romania and the IT&;C retailer Germanos. Deutsche Telekom also operates a wholesale division named International Carrier Sales & Solutions (ICSS) that provides white label voice and data wholesale support services to large carriers. OTE also used to have shares in One Telecommunications operating in Albania. Prior to its sale it

6102-551: The Internet through an SMSC , allowing communication to computers, fixed landlines , and satellite . MMS was later introduced as an upgrade to SMS with "picture messaging" capabilities. In addition to recreational texting between people, SMS is also used for mobile marketing (a type of direct marketing ), two-factor authentication logging-in, televoting , mobile banking (see SMS banking ), and for other commercial content. The SMS standard has been hugely popular worldwide as

6215-737: The Mobile Terminated service. CAMEL allows the gsmSCP to block the submission (MO) or delivery (MT) of Short Messages, route messages to destinations other than that specified by the user, and perform real-time billing for the use of the service. Prior to standardized CAMEL control of the Short Message Service, IN control relied on switch vendor specific extensions to the Intelligent Network Application Part (INAP) of SS7. GSM The Global System for Mobile Communications ( GSM )

6328-733: The SMS reply is sent back to the original email address. Sending email to SMS is free for the sender, but the recipient is subject to the standard delivery charges. Only the first 160 characters of an email message can be delivered to a phone, and only 160 characters can be sent from a phone. However, longer messages may be broken up into multiple texts, depending upon the telephone service provider. Text-enabled fixed-line handsets are required to receive messages in text format. However, messages can be delivered to non enabled phones using text-to-speech conversion . Short messages can send binary content such as ringtones or logos, as well as Over-the-air programming (OTA) or configuration data. Such uses are

6441-427: The SMSC's recipients. If a recipient is not reachable, the SMSC queues the message for later retry. Some SMSCs also provide a "forward and forget" option where transmission is tried only once. Both mobile terminated (MT, for messages sent to a mobile handset) and mobile originating (MO, for those sent from the mobile handset) operations are supported. Message delivery is " best effort ", so there are no guarantees that

6554-582: The SMSCs of other mobile operators. Therefore, it is possible to avoid delays and message losses, offering full delivery guarantees of messages and optimized routing. This model is particularly efficient when used in mission-critical messaging and SMS used in corporate communications. Moreover, these SMS gateway providers are providing branded SMS services with masking but after misuse of these gateways most countries' governments have taken serious steps to block these gateways. Message Service Centers communicate with

6667-562: The Short Message Service". Responsible editor was Finn Trosby. The first and very rudimentary draft of the technical specification was completed in November 1987. However, drafts useful for the manufacturers followed at a later stage in the period. A comprehensive description of the work in this period is given in. The work on the draft specification continued in the following few years, where Kevin Holley of Cellnet (now Telefónica O2 UK) played

6780-740: The Short Message operation packages in MAP, although other operation packages have been enhanced to support CAMEL SMS control. From 3GPP Releases 99 and 4 onwards, CAMEL Phase 3 introduced the ability for the Intelligent Network (IN) to control aspects of the Mobile Originated Short Message Service, while CAMEL Phase 4, as part of 3GPP Release 5 and onwards, provides the IN with the ability to control

6893-460: The UK by 1993, called the DCS 1800. Also that year, Telstra became the first network operator to deploy a GSM network outside Europe and the first practical hand-held GSM mobile phone became available. In 1995 fax, data and SMS messaging services were launched commercially, the first 1900 MHz GSM network became operational in the United States and GSM subscribers worldwide exceeded 10 million. In

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7006-547: The United States at the time (see digital divide ), hence making SMS more accessible. SMS has become a large commercial industry, earning $ 114.6 billion globally in 2010. In the year 2002, 366 billion SMS text messages were sent globally, a number that rose to 6.1 trillion (6.1 × 10) in 2010, which is an average of 193,000 messages per second. The global average price for an SMS message is US$ 0.11, while mobile networks charge each other interconnect fees of at least US$ 0.04 when connecting between different phone networks. In 2015,

7119-487: The United States; A5/2 is weaker and used in other countries. Serious weaknesses have been found in both algorithms: it is possible to break A5/2 in real-time with a ciphertext-only attack , and in January 2007, The Hacker's Choice started the A5/1 cracking project with plans to use FPGAs that allow A5/1 to be broken with a rainbow table attack. The system supports multiple algorithms so operators may replace that cipher with

7232-427: The abundance of dual-SIM handsets and operators. GSM was intended to be a secure wireless system. It has considered the user authentication using a pre-shared key and challenge–response , and over-the-air encryption. However, GSM is vulnerable to different types of attack, each of them aimed at a different part of the network. Research findings indicate that GSM faces susceptibility to hacking by script kiddies ,

7345-456: The actual cost of sending an SMS in Australia was found to be $ 0.00016 per SMS. The global SMS messaging business was estimated to be worth over US$ 240 billion in 2013, accounting for almost half of all revenue generated by mobile messaging. The popularity of SMS also led to the spontaneous creation of the so-called ' SMS language ' phenomenon, where words are shortened in order to deal with

7458-507: The concept of an extended cell, where the cell radius could be double or even more, depending on the antenna system, the type of terrain, and the timing advance . GSM supports indoor coverage – achievable by using an indoor picocell base station, or an indoor repeater with distributed indoor antennas fed through power splitters – to deliver the radio signals from an antenna outdoors to the separate indoor distributed antenna system. Picocells are typically deployed when significant call capacity

7571-537: The development of the first international mobile communications standard with subsequent evolution into worldwide smartphone data communication". The GSM (2G) has evolved into 3G, 4G and 5G. In parallel France and Germany signed a joint development agreement in 1984 and were joined by Italy and the UK in 1986. In 1986, the European Commission proposed reserving the 900 MHz spectrum band for GSM. It

7684-492: The first HSDPA -capable network also became operational. The first HSUPA network launched in 2007. ( High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) and its uplink and downlink versions are 3G technologies, not part of GSM.) Worldwide GSM subscribers exceeded three billion in 2008. The GSM Association estimated in 2011 that technologies defined in the GSM standard served 80% of the mobile market, encompassing more than 5 billion people across more than 212 countries and territories, making GSM

7797-453: The first Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) was introduced and the first GSM network in the 800 MHz frequency band became operational. Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) services first became operational in a network in 2003, and the number of worldwide GSM subscribers exceeded 1 billion in 2004. By 2005 GSM networks accounted for more than 75% of the worldwide cellular network market, serving 1.5 billion subscribers. In 2005,

7910-624: The first German telecom units. On 6 December 2001, Deutsche Telekom became the first official partner of the 2006 FIFA World Cup . On 1 January 2005, Deutsche Telekom implemented a new company structure. The two organizational business units of T-Com and T-Online were merged into the Broadband/Fixed Network (BBFN) strategic business unit (T-Online merged with parent Deutsche Telekom in 2006). It provides around 40 million narrowband lines, over 9 million broadband lines, and has 14 million registered Internet customers. In 2008,

8023-673: The first mobile network operator to decommission a GSM network. The second mobile provider to shut down its GSM network (on 1 January 2017) was AT&T Mobility from the United States . Optus in Australia completed the shut down of its 2G GSM network on 1 August 2017, part of the Optus GSM network covering Western Australia and the Northern Territory had earlier in the year been shut down in April 2017. Singapore shut down 2G services entirely in April 2017. The network

8136-448: The form of validation nodes . In December 2023, Deutsche Telekom and Nokia with Fujitsu began deploying a multivendor Open Radio Access Network (Open RAN). The network is fully integrated into Deutsche Telekom's existing commercial network, including 5G AirScale compatible with Open RAN. For the fiscal year 2017, Deutsche Telekom reported earnings of €3.5 billion, with an annual revenue of €74.9 billion, an increase of 2.5% over

8249-596: The four big EU countries cemented their political support for GSM with the Bonn Declaration on Global Information Networks in May and the GSM MoU was tabled for signature in September. The MoU drew in mobile operators from across Europe to pledge to invest in new GSM networks to an ambitious common date. In this short 38-week period the whole of Europe (countries and industries) had been brought behind GSM in

8362-416: The frequency selected by an operator, it is divided into timeslots for individual phones. This allows eight full-rate or sixteen half-rate speech channels per radio frequency . These eight radio timeslots (or burst periods) are grouped into a TDMA frame. Half-rate channels use alternate frames in the same timeslot. The channel data rate for all 8 channels is 270.833 kbit/s, and the frame duration

8475-425: The inbox. It can be useful in emergencies , such as a fire alarm or cases of confidentiality , as in delivering one-time passwords . In 2010, almost half a million silent SMS messages were sent by the German federal police, customs and the federal domestic intelligence service Verfassungsschutz . These silent messages, also known as silent TMS, stealth SMS, stealth ping or Short Message Type 0, are used to locate

8588-420: The internet, for hours at a time, and using PC-to-PC “ instant messaging ” (IM) the preferred mode of electronic chat among American teenagers. This is also backed by the fact that as of 2003, American internet users were spending on average five times more time online than Europeans, and many poorer countries in Europe and other regions around the world had significantly lower rates of internet access compared to

8701-628: The key features of GSM is the Subscriber Identity Module , commonly known as a SIM card . The SIM is a detachable smart card containing a user's subscription information and phone book. This allows users to retain their information after switching handsets. Alternatively, users can change networks or network identities without switching handsets - simply by changing the SIM. Sometimes mobile network operators restrict handsets that they sell for exclusive use in their own network. This

8814-431: The length of the messages to 128 bytes (later improved to 160 seven-bit characters) so that the messages could fit into the existing signalling formats. Based on his personal observations and on analysis of the typical lengths of postcard and Telex messages, Hillebrand argued that 160 characters was sufficient for most brief communications. SMS could be implemented in every mobile station by updating its software. Hence,

8927-414: The main source of cellular technology in numerous countries, its susceptibility to potential threats from malicious attacks is one that needs to be addressed. The development of UMTS introduced an optional Universal Subscriber Identity Module (USIM), that uses a longer authentication key to give greater security, as well as mutually authenticating the network and the user, whereas GSM only authenticates

9040-531: The message "This handset was nicked, buying or selling is a crime. The police." SMS was originally designed as part of GSM, but is now available on a wide range of networks globally, including 3G, 4G and 5G networks. However, not all text messaging systems use SMS, and some notable alternative implementations of the concept include J-Phone 's SkyMail and NTT Docomo 's Short Mail , both in Japan. Email messaging from phones, as popularized by NTT Docomo's i-mode and

9153-449: The message through the SS7 network. Another type of SMS gateway provider is based on SS7 connectivity to route SMS messages, also known as "international termination model". The advantage of this model is the ability to route data directly through SS7, which gives the provider total control and visibility of the complete path during SMS routing. This means SMS messages can be sent directly to and from recipients without having to go through

9266-611: The message was "Merry Christmas." The first commercial deployment of a short message service center (SMSC) was by Aldiscon part of Logica (now part of CGI ) with Telia (now TeliaSonera ) in Sweden in 1993, followed by Fleet Call (now Nextel ) in the US, Telenor in Norway and BT Cellnet (now O2 UK) later in 1993. All first installations of SMS gateways were for network notifications sent to mobile phones, usually to inform of voice mail messages. The first commercially sold SMS service

9379-609: The mid-2010s, it became a global standard for mobile communications achieving over 90% market share, and operating in over 193 countries and territories. 2G networks developed as a replacement for first generation ( 1G ) analog cellular networks. The GSM standard originally described a digital, circuit-switched network optimized for full duplex voice telephony . This expanded over time to include data communications, first by circuit-switched transport , then by packet data transport via General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), and Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE). Subsequently,

9492-598: The most ubiquitous of the many standards for cellular networks. GSM is a second-generation (2G) standard employing time-division multiple-access (TDMA) spectrum-sharing, issued by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). The GSM standard does not include the 3G Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), code-division multiple access (CDMA) technology, nor the 4G LTE orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) technology standards issued by

9605-539: The network operator supports it. SMS may be used to provide premium rate services to subscribers of a network. Mobile-terminated short messages can be used to deliver digital content such as news alerts, financial information, logos, and ringtones . The first premium-rate media content delivered via the SMS system was the world's first paid downloadable ringing tones, as commercially launched by Saunalahti (later Jippii Group, now part of Elisa Group ), in 1998. Initially, only Nokia branded phones could handle them. By 2002

9718-551: The open-source version. As of 2011 , there have been no lawsuits against users of OpenBTS over GSM use. Deutsche Telekom Deutsche Telekom AG ( German pronunciation: [ˌdɔʏtʃə ˈteːləkɔm ʔaːˌɡeː] ; often just Telekom , DTAG or DT ; stylised as ·T· ) is a partially state-owned German telecommunications company headquartered in Bonn and is the largest telecommunications provider in Europe by revenue. It

9831-481: The population as of 2023. In order to create a modern successor to SMS that isn't run by a single company and is fully interoperable between devices, industry figures have created the RCS 'Universal Profile' initiative. It was supported by Apple when iOS 18 came out in 2024, which will mean that virtually all new mobile phones (iOS and Android platforms) will have RCS texting capabilities, though this may also depend on if

9944-787: The previous fiscal cycle. Deutsche Telekom's shares traded at over €14 per share, and its market capitalization was valued at US$ 68.4 billion in November 2018. The key trends for Deutsche Telekom are (as at the financial year ending December 31): Deutsche Telekom also holds substantial shares in other telecom companies, including Central European subsidiaries Slovak Telekom ( Slovakia ), Magyar Telekom ( Hungary ). Furthermore, Magyar Telekom holds majority shares in Makedonski Telekom ( North Macedonia ), and Hrvatski Telekom ( Croatia ) holds majority shares in Crnogorski Telekom ( Montenegro ). DT also holds shares in

10057-535: The protocol. Transmission of short messages between the SMSC and the handset is done whenever using the Mobile Application Part (MAP) of the SS7 protocol. Messages are sent with the MAP MO- and MT-ForwardSM operations, whose payload length is limited by the constraints of the signaling protocol to precisely 140 bytes (140 bytes × 8 bits / byte = 1120 bits). Short messages can be encoded using

10170-450: The provision of a message transmission service of alphanumeric messages to mobile users "with acknowledgement capabilities". The last three words transformed SMS into something much more useful than the electronic paging services used at the time that some in GSM might have had in mind. SMS was considered in the main GSM group as a possible service for the new digital cellular system. In GSM document " Services and Facilities to be provided in

10283-476: The public switched telephone networks and public data networks ... should be available in the mobile system." This plan included the exchange of text messages either directly between mobile stations, or transmitted via message handling systems in use at that time. The SMS concept was developed in the Franco-German GSM cooperation in 1984 by Friedhelm Hillebrand and Bernard Ghillebaert . The GSM

10396-426: The ringtone business globally had exceeded $ 1 billion of service revenues, and nearly US$ 5 billion by 2008. Today, they are also used to pay smaller payments online—for example, for file-sharing services, in mobile application stores, or VIP section entrance. Outside the online world, one can buy a bus ticket or beverages from ATM, pay a parking ticket, order a store catalog or some goods (e.g., discount movie DVDs), make

10509-459: The same year, the GSM Association formed. Pre-paid GSM SIM cards were launched in 1996 and worldwide GSM subscribers passed 100 million in 1998. In 2000 the first commercial General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) services were launched and the first GPRS-compatible handsets became available for sale. In 2001, the first UMTS (W-CDMA) network was launched, a 3G technology that is not part of GSM. Worldwide GSM subscribers exceeded 500 million. In 2002,

10622-458: The signal. GSM was further enhanced in 1997 with the enhanced full rate (EFR) codec, a 12.2 kbit/s codec that uses a full-rate channel. Finally, with the development of UMTS , EFR was refactored into a variable-rate codec called AMR-Narrowband , which is high quality and robust against interference when used on full-rate channels, or less robust but still relatively high quality when used in good radio conditions on half-rate channel. One of

10735-655: The structure was changed again. T-Online was separated from Deutsche Telekom and merged with T-Com to form the new unit T-Home. In September 2010, Orange parent France Télécom and T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom merged their operations in the United Kingdom to create the largest mobile network in Britain, EE . In April 2010, T-Mobile was merged with T-Home to form Telekom Deutschland GmbH . This unit now handles all products and services aimed at private customers. In October 2012, Deutsche Telekom and Orange created

10848-422: The subgroup WP3 network aspects chaired by Jan Audestad (Telenor). The result was approved by the main GSM group in a June 1985 document which was distributed to industry. The input documents on SMS had been prepared by Friedhelm Hillebrand of Deutsche Telekom , with contributions from Bernard Ghillebaert of France Télécom . The definition that Friedhelm Hillebrand and Bernard Ghillebaert brought into GSM called for

10961-514: The technology was made freely available to the whole world. The first proposal which initiated the development of SMS was made by a contribution of Germany and France in the GSM group meeting in February 1985 in Oslo. This proposal was further elaborated in GSM subgroup WP1 Services (Chairman Martine Alvernhe, France Telecom) based on a contribution from Germany. There were also initial discussions in

11074-455: The telecom industry. Amid concerns over Chinese involvement in 5G wireless networks in Europe, Deutsche Telekom temporarily put all deals to buy 5G network equipment on hold in 2019, as it awaited the resolution of a debate in Germany over whether to ban Chinese vendor Huawei on security grounds. In February 2020, Deutsche Telekom joined a new partnership called HAPS Alliance to promote

11187-400: The types of data channel they were allocated, were used, called Half Rate (6.5 kbit/s) and Full Rate (13 kbit/s). These used a system based on linear predictive coding (LPC). In addition to being efficient with bitrates , these codecs also made it easier to identify more important parts of the audio, allowing the air interface layer to prioritize and better protect these parts of

11300-570: The use of high-altitude vehicles in the Earth's stratosphere with the goal of eliminating the digital divide. On April 1, 2020, Sprint completed the merger with T-Mobile US , making T-Mobile US the owner of Sprint and becoming its subsidiary until the Sprint brand is phased out. The merger also led SoftBank Group , the then-owner of Sprint, to hold up to 24% of New T-Mobile's shares while Deutsche Telekom holds up to 43% of its shares. The remaining 33%

11413-415: The user to the network (and not vice versa). The security model therefore offers confidentiality and authentication, but limited authorization capabilities, and no non-repudiation . GSM uses several cryptographic algorithms for security. The A5/1 , A5/2 , and A5/3 stream ciphers are used for ensuring over-the-air voice privacy. A5/1 was developed first and is a stronger algorithm used within Europe and

11526-535: The web. The most commonly deployed GPRS ciphers were publicly broken in 2011. The researchers revealed flaws in the commonly used GEA/1 and GEA/2 (standing for GPRS Encryption Algorithms 1 and 2) ciphers and published the open-source "gprsdecode" software for sniffing GPRS networks. They also noted that some carriers do not encrypt the data (i.e., using GEA/0) in order to detect the use of traffic or protocols they do not like (e.g., Skype ), leaving customers unprotected. GEA/3 seems to remain relatively hard to break and

11639-467: Was actually made by me. I called Marjo Jousinen, in Salo.", Lonka informed. The following year saw the sending of the first short messaging service (SMS or "text message") message, and Vodafone UK and Telecom Finland signed the first international roaming agreement. Work began in 1991 to expand the GSM standard to the 1800 MHz frequency band and the first 1800 MHz network became operational in

11752-524: Was announced that Deutsche Telekom were in talks with BT Group on the acquisition of EE, and part of the deal was to provide Deutsche Telekom a 12% stake and a seat on the board in the BT Group upon completion. BT Group announced agreement in February 2015 to acquire EE for £12.5 billion and received regulatory approval from the Competition and Markets Authority on 15 January 2016. The transaction

11865-704: Was completed on 29 January 2016. In September 2015, Deutsche Telekom launched the "Puls tablet", a Tablet computer with Android version 5 . In February 2016, at the Mobile World Congress , in Barcelona , Deutsche Telekom jointly launched the Telecom Infra Project (TIP) with Intel , Nokia , Facebook , Equinix , SK Telecom , and others, which builds on the Open Compute Project model to accelerate innovation in

11978-576: Was eliminated by switch billing instead of billing at the SMSC and by new features within SMSCs to allow blocking of foreign mobile users sending messages through it. By the end of 2000, the average number of messages reached 35 per user per month, and on Christmas Day 2006, over 205 million messages were sent in the UK alone. SMS had become a social phenomenon in Finland among teens and youngsters by 1999. SMS traffic across Europe reached 4 billion messages as of January 2000. It had become extremely popular in

12091-505: Was formed in 1995 when Deutsche Bundespost , a state monopoly at the time, was privatized. Since then, Deutsche Telekom has consistently featured among Fortune Magazine 's top Global 500 companies by revenue, with its ranking as of 2023 at number 79. In 2023, the company was ranked 41st in the Forbes Global 2000 . The company operates several subsidiaries worldwide, including the mobile communications brand T-Mobile . It

12204-454: Was known as Telekom Albania using DT's logo and marketing strategies. Operation of telephone companies involves billing-software or "BSS". Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile billing was performed on Israeli-backend systems until 2014, when Ericsson was selected to replace the Israeli backend. T-Systems sells worldwide products and services to medium to very large business customers. The focus

12317-478: Was long believed that the former Finnish prime minister Harri Holkeri made the world's first GSM call on 1 July 1991, calling Kaarina Suonio (deputy mayor of the city of Tampere ) using a network built by Nokia and Siemens and operated by Radiolinja . In 2021 a former Nokia engineer Pekka Lonka revealed to Helsingin Sanomat making a test call just a couple of hours earlier. "World's first GSM call

12430-408: Was offered to consumers, as a person-to-person text messaging service by Radiolinja (now part of Elisa) in Finland in 1993. Most early GSM mobile phone handsets did not support the ability to send SMS text messages, and Nokia was the only handset manufacturer whose total GSM phone line in 1993 supported user-sending of SMS text messages. According to Matti Makkonen , an engineer at Nokia at the time,

12543-475: Was privatized in 1996. As such, it shares a common heritage with the other privatized Deutsche Bundespost companies, Deutsche Post (DHL) and Deutsche Postbank . Deutsche Telekom was the monopoly Internet service provider (ISP) for Germany until its privatization in 1995, and the dominant ISP thereafter. Until the early 21st century, Deutsche Telekom controlled almost all Internet access by individuals and small businesses in Germany, as they were one of

12656-494: Was responsible for the specification of SMS. Finn Trosby of Telenor chaired the draft group through its first three years, in which the design of SMS was established. DGMH had five to eight participants, and Finn Trosby mentions as major contributors Kevin Holley, Eija Altonen, Didier Luizard and Alan Cox. The first action plan mentions for the first time the Technical Specification 03.40 "Technical Realisation of

12769-528: Was the German federal government postal administration created in 1947 as a successor to the Reichspost . It was also the major telephone company in West Germany . On 1 July 1989, as part of a post office reform, Deutsche Bundespost was split into three entities, one being Deutsche Telekom. On 1 January 1995, as part of another reform, Deutsche Bundespost Telekom became Deutsche Telekom AG, and

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