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101-739: Virgin Mobile USA was a no-contract Mobile Virtual Network Operator . It used Sprint's network for coverage. It licensed the Virgin Mobile brand from United Kingdom-based Virgin Group . Virgin Mobile USA was headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri , and provided service to approximately 6 million customers. Founded in 2001 as a joint venture between Virgin Group and Sprint Corporation , Virgin Mobile USA commenced operations in June 2002 as

202-510: A mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), providing services via the Sprint 1900 MHz CDMA network. In 2009, Sprint Nextel bought out joint-venture partner Virgin Group, becoming the sole owner of Virgin Mobile USA. In June 2017, Virgin Mobile dropped all Android and began to only offer iPhones to new customers under its new "Inner Circle" unlimited plan. Following the discontinuation of

303-483: A Virgin Mobile USA payLo service plan that allowed the former Common Cents Mobile customers to keep their existing $ .07 per minute rate. On May 31, 2012, Virgin Mobile USA began offering 4G products and services using Sprint's 2500 MHz 4G WiMAX network. The HTC EVO V 4G , which was also previously released by Sprint as the HTC EVO 3D was the first 4G smartphone. On February 25, 2013, Virgin Mobile USA released

404-414: 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

505-514: A competing mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) also hosted on the Sprint network, aimed at post-paid, contract users. By late 2009, Virgin Mobile USA ceased selling new Helio phones or service, dropping the Helio name. On July 28, 2009, Sprint Nextel Corporation agreed to acquire the outstanding shares of Virgin Mobile USA, Inc. in return for Sprint Nextel stock valued at approximately US$ 5.50 per share of Virgin Mobile USA common stock. Prior to

606-466: 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

707-527: 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

808-439: 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

909-560: 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

1010-698: A loss of 10¢ per share in the year-ago period. As of November 16, 2007, shares of the company's common stock had declined to $ 9.19 per share. The company reported in 2007 that it held an exclusive license for the Virgin Mobile brand in the United States, U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico until the end of 2027. In exchange, Virgin Mobile USA agreed to pay 0.25% of gross revenues up to an annual limit of $ 4 million, adjusted annually for inflation. In 2008, Virgin Mobile USA acquired Helio, Inc. ,

1111-499: 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

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1212-545: A national retail presence. In January 2020, the company began notifying its customers by text message that it was discontinuing service and that in February 2020 customer accounts would be migrated to Boost Mobile. Virgin Mobile USA offered wireless products and services through Virgin Mobile. Virgin Mobile-branded service was available within the contiguous United States, Hawaii and Puerto Rico coverage areas under

1313-403: A network implementation operating essentially the same technology as a mobile network operator. Full MVNOs only lack their own radio networks. As of June 2014, 943 MVNOs and 255 MNO sub-brands were active worldwide. This represents a total of almost 1,200 mobile service providers worldwide hosted by MNOs, up from 1,036 in 2012, According to GSMA Intelligence, between June 2010 and June 2015,

1414-555: 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

1515-550: A new promotional offer known as "Inner Circle", offering an "unlimited" data plan (subject to throttling of media streaming quality, and full throttling of data after 23 GB of usage) for $ 50 per-month, and that new customers would receive a year of service for $ 1, and another six-month period for $ 1 if they purchase a new device after their second year of service. At the same time, the carrier transitioned to only offering iPhone products to new customers, and dropped all other devices from its smartphone lineup. The Inner Circle plan

1616-470: 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

1717-450: 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

1818-405: A recommendation from the national telecom regulator, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India , to permit VNOs in the country, and announced the grant of a unified license for Virtual Network Operators on 31 May 2016. VNOs have formed an association to represent current regulatory issues impacting their MVNO business viability. In Nigeria, the licensing of telecommunications operators is overseen by

1919-466: 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

2020-499: A subsequent jump in wireless subscriber numbers. Though the new 2G networks more efficiently managed the limited frequency bands allocated to wireless service, new mobile entrants were still limited by their ability to access frequency bands in a restricted spectrum . In 1997 Vodafone Australia and TotalTel launched FastFone, the world's first true prepaid MVNO utilising the worlds first fully MNO integrated MVNE platform supplied by Isoton (formerly Steadycom). FastFone's MVNO model

2121-601: 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

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2222-527: 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

2323-489: 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, 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

2424-500: Is a text messaging service component of most telephone , Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile phones exchange short text messages, typically transmitted over cellular networks . 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

2525-410: Is automatically included for those on Virgin Mobile's Data Love or Data Love + plan with Streaming Music. Users must download one (or more) of Virgin Mobile's streaming music partner's apps through Google Play or the iTunes App Store in order to access Data-Free Music. Virgin Mobile USA unlimited service plans for phones do allow roaming for devices that have been enabled to roam. Virgin Mobile maintains

2626-506: 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

2727-545: Is determined by how "thick" or "thin" a technological layer an MVNO adds over its access to its host MNO's network. Sometimes referred to as a "Skinny MVNO", as the reseller almost totally relies on the MNO's facilities. They do not own any network elements, but may own and operate their own customer care, marketing, and sales operations. Sometimes referred to as a "Light MVNO". The service provider operates its own customer support, marketing, sales and distribution operations, and has

2828-628: 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

2929-509: 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

3030-459: Is one million, a relatively small number. According to Burke, Virgin Mobile USA did not employ security techniques that would prevent an attacker from rapidly cycling through all possible password permutations, allowing a brute force attack to succeed in twelve days or less. In response to the wide media coverage, Virgin Mobile updated its online account access system, limiting users to 20 attempts from one IP address. Virgin Mobile's target audience

3131-418: 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

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3232-415: 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

3333-511: 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

3434-594: 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

3535-537: 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

3636-478: 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

3737-588: 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

3838-652: The "big five" banks in South Africa , FNB , created an MVNO named FNB Connect providing voice, SMS and data services. As of 31 December 2019, FNB Connect had around 670,000 subscribers. The service makes use of Cell C network infrastructure. The move came not necessarily to compete in the telecommunications market, but to offer a greater value to customers of the banking division. There have been several banks in South Africa making this move, like Standard Bank 's SB Mobile established in 2019. MVNOs target both

3939-434: 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

4040-718: The 2100 MHz 3G network of state telecom service TOT Public Company Limited (TOT) in 2009. As of January 2017, two of the original five MVNOs are still in service. As of December 2018, the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) had issued 58 MVNO licenses in Thailand, a total of nine have launched, four remain active. In India , the Telecom Department under the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, accepted

4141-544: The American and Canadian versions, though the programs do share some partners and deals in common, including H&M and Virgin Hotels . Virgin Mobile USA offered older services that are now discontinued. Customers with such services may be entitled to a grandfather clause . Broadband2Go Internet plans were offered with Virgin Mobile USA's mobile broadband modems . Users could purchase access to Broadband2Go services by

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4242-515: 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

4343-713: 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

4444-580: The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). As part of its regulatory framework, the NCC reclassified telecommunications licences into class and individual licences. This regulatory structure ensures that all telecom service providers, including MVNOs, comply with national guidelines and operate within the appropriate legal framework for their respective services. SMS Short Message Service , commonly abbreviated as SMS ,

4545-428: 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

4646-583: 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

4747-615: The Samsung Galaxy Victory 4G LTE, its first 4G device using Sprint's 4G LTE network. On June 28, 2013, Virgin Mobile USA released the Apple iPhone 5 , its second device taking advantage of Sprint's LTE network. On April 1, 2014, Virgin Mobile USA released the NETGEAR Mingle mobile hotspot, its first tri-band device which is capable of using all three of Sprint's LTE bands. In June 2017, Virgin Mobile USA announced

4848-637: 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

4949-742: 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

5050-607: The Sprint nationwide network. Virgin Mobile offered Assurance Wireless , the telephone service subsidized by the federal Lifeline Assistance program , a government benefit program supported by the federal Universal Service Fund . The Assurance Wireless brand was moved to the T-Mobile family in 2020 after the Sprint and T-Mobile merger was officially completed and after Virgin Mobile was officially shut down and folded into Boost Mobile. Virgin Mobile USA provided wireless services in

5151-479: The U.S. market after Virgin had successfully launched Virgin Mobile in the United Kingdom in 1999. At that point, the U.S. team began pitching the U.S. mobile operators on the concept of an MVNO, which at the time was not well understood. The MVNO concept Virgin Mobile was pitching to mobile operators was a joint venture, where both parties would have aligned incentives, rather than the often-contentious relationship that mobile operators had with resellers. A joint venture

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5252-403: 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

5353-478: The ability to set its tariffs independently from the retail prices set by the MNO. Sometimes referred to as a "Thick MVNO". The MVNO manages a more complete technical implementation with its own infrastructure which allows the MVNO more control over its offerings. These MVNOs have a heavier focus on branding, customer-ownership, and differentiation through added services like data and SIM applications. These MVNOs have

5454-466: The consumer and enterprise markets. The majority of MVNOs are consumer-focused and most have a focus on price as their selling point; on average, customers of major carriers spend about 3.4 times as much on their service as MVNO customers. At the end of year 2022, there were 1,986 active MVNOs globally, more than double the amount of traditional telecom network operators. Europe lead in terms of most active MVNOs in operation with 1,012, representing half of

5555-794: The contiguous United States, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico via parent, Sprint's nationwide CDMA, EVDO, LTE, and Sprint Spark networks. Since June 27, 2017, Virgin Mobile USA sold the iPhone in various models. Options included: Customers who already owned an iPhone were able to bring it to Virgin Mobile USA if it was compatible. From February 2018, grandfathered customers without the iPhone-only Inner Circle plan remained eligible to purchase Android devices, feature phones and mobile broadband modems . Inner Circle Virgin Mobile USA has one plan offering for new customers. The iPhone-only Inner Circle plan offers customers unlimited talk, text and data for $ 50. However, when users purchase an iPhone or bring their own iPhone and port their number to Virgin Mobile,

5656-533: The creation of the first MVNO in the Arab world in 2010. The Saudi government is making preparations to permit MVNO services in the country. In Brazil , MVNOs are regulated by Anatel , the Brazilian Agency of Telecommunications , in November 2010. As of September 2014 the combined market share of all Brazilian MVNOs was just 0.04%. In Thailand , five MVNOs were given a Type II license to operate on

5757-499: The day or by the month. A daily plan offered 250 MB of full-speed access. Monthly plans ranged from 500 MB to 6 GB. access. PayLo plans offered users unlimited talk and text for $ 40 per month. Virgin Mobile offered talk, text, and mobile web access plans for feature phones and smartphones under the Data Done Right brand. These plans could only be purchased at Walmart . In September, 2012, media outlets began reporting on

5858-476: 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 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

5959-404: The end of 2006 had increased by 1.6 million over the previous year. MVNOs are distinguished by their commitment to owning and managing the operational components of the MVNO business model, consisting of: Because MVNOs are effectively defined by their lack of spectrum licenses, an MVNO necessarily will need to have agreements in place to access the network of at least one MNO. The type of MVNO

6060-487: 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

6161-624: The end of 2011. Virgin Mobile produced multiple videos and photo galleries that starred the fictional couple and posted them to a dedicated website "sparah.com." Virgin Mobile USA hoped to connect the ability for consumers to enjoy data-intensive web content using a Virgin Mobile USA unlimited data plan. In August 2011, Virgin Mobile USA aired television ads that parodied elements of T-Mobile USA and AT&T Mobility 's marketing, featuring an unflattering portrayal of spokespersons for both brands. In March 2012, Virgin Mobile introduced an ad campaign featuring Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group, and

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6262-543: The findings of Kevin Burke, a software developer and Virgin Mobile USA customer. Burke's experimentation led him to claim that Virgin Mobile USA's account security practices did not adequately protect customer account information. To access their account via the Virgin Mobile USA website, customers must enter their ten-digit telephone number and a six-digit password. The maximum possible number of six-digit passwords

6363-681: The first 6 months of service are $ 1 per month. The Inner Circle plan also promotes "perks" that customers have exclusive access to as Inner Circle members. These "perks" include a companion ticket on Virgin Atlantic, an extra night at Virgin Hotels and discounts from Virgin Wines. Data Love and Data Love+ Virgin Mobile USA maintains the Data Love and Data Love+ plans for customers who were already using these services before June 21, 2017. These unlimited plans offer high-speed 4G LTE data. Data-Free Music

6464-483: 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

6565-474: 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

6666-566: The latter of which had been requested by (and denied to) Sense Communications. With the new regulations in place, MVNOs in Scandinavia eventually grew to a market share of above 10%. By 2008, US wireless subscribers had a choice between around 40 MVNOs. According to the FCC, approximately 7% of all U.S. mobile subscribers were served by resellers, including MVNOs, and analysts found that the 15.1 million wireless subscribers served by resellers by

6767-432: 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,

6868-460: The low end of the original $ 15–$ 17 prediction. On November 15, 2007, approximately one month after the IPO, Virgin Mobile USA announced earnings for the three-month period ended September 30, 2007. The company reported that its third-quarter loss widened to $ 7.3 million, compared with a loss of $ 5.1 million in the year-ago quarter. The company also reported a pro-forma loss of 15¢ per share, compared with

6969-760: The market share of MVNOs in 2022 is 13.4%. Vietnam currently has 5 MVNO providers as May 2024, mostly operating and relying on 2 main providers: VinaPhone and MobiFone. Thsese includes: Local,FPT Retail,Wintel,iTel,VNSKY. In 2003, the European Commission issued a recommendation to national telecom regulators to examine the competitiveness of the market for wholesale access and call origination on public mobile telephone networks. The study resulted in new regulations from regulators in several countries, including Ireland and France forcing operators to open up their networks to MVNOs. Jordan 's top watchdog issued its first MVNO regulations in 2008, facilitating

7070-522: The market share of MVNOs is 12.2% in 2019. The total number of contractors is 22.3 million. The three US national carriers have partial or full ownership of several large MVNO brands, such as Cricket Wireless (AT&T), TracFone Wireless (Verizon) and Metro by T-Mobile (T-Mobile). The UK had 77 active MVNOs as of December 2018. The MVNOs combined market share was 15.9% of the total UK mobile market, representing 15.3 million connections. Ireland has seven active MVNO brands as of February 2021, and

7171-533: 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

7272-450: 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

7373-617: 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

7474-541: 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

7575-887: The number of MVNOs worldwide increased by 70 percent, reaching 1,017 in June 2015. As of December 2018, there were 1,300 active MVNOs operating in 80 countries, representing more than 220 million mobile connections—approximately 2.46% of the total 8.9 billion mobile connections in the world. The eight countries with the largest number of active MVNOs in 2018 were: the US with 139 MVNOs (4.7% market share), Germany with 135 (19.5% market share), Japan 83 (10.6%), UK 77 (15.9%), Australia 66 (13.1%), Spain 63 (11.5%), France 53 (11.2%) and Denmark 49 (34.6%). In addition to traditional cellular voice and messaging services, in 2014, 120 MVNOs also were offering mobile broadband services. In Africa, Uganda has registered three MVNOs so far, some having their own network infrastructure within major cities, but acting as an MVNO out of these cities. In 2015, one of

7676-465: The plan in 2018, it began to restore Android devices to its lineup. In January 2020, Virgin Mobile announced that it would shut down, and transfer its remaining customers to Boost Mobile the following month in preparation for the Sprint and T-Mobile merger . Virgin Mobile USA was formed in 2000 in San Francisco. In July 2000, John Tantum and Dave Whetstone pitched Richard Branson on entering

7777-483: 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

7878-537: 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

7979-451: 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

8080-479: 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

8181-991: The purchase, Sprint Nextel owned 13.1% of Virgin Mobile USA. After the acquisition, Sprint Nextel formed the Sprint Prepaid Group, an organizational division which included Sprint's other prepaid offerings, Boost Mobile and Common Cents Mobile. In May 2010, Virgin Mobile USA began offering its first smartphone , the BlackBerry Curve 8530 , combined with new, unlimited text and data Beyond Talk-branded plans. Sprint Nextel announced in March 2010 that Virgin Mobile USA would stop providing service to Helio post-paid customers on May 25, 2010. Sprint Nextel offered Helio customers incentives to switch to Sprint-branded service plans. On May 18, 2011, Sprint Nextel discontinued operating its Common Cents Mobile pre-paid brand. Common Cents Mobile customers were transitioned to

8282-592: The regulator in Denmark saw the promise in the MVNO model as a cost-effective route for telecom companies to enter the market and in May 2000, legislation passed that required network operators with significant market power to open up access to their infrastructure. By August of that same year, the MNO SONOFON had solidified the first viable MVNO agreement with Tele2 . This agreement provided Tele2 with access to SONOFON's network for both mobile and roaming services,

8383-428: 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

8484-536: The slogan "We answer to a higher calling". Virgin Mobile products and services were sold via the virginmobileusa.com web site and at partner retail outlets, including Best Buy , RadioShack , Target , Fred Meyer , and Walmart . Mobile Virtual Network Operator MVNO agreements with network operators date back to the 1990s, when the European and Australian telecom markets saw market liberalization, new regulatory frameworks, better 2G network technology, and

8585-433: The spontaneous creation of the so-called ' SMS language ' phenomenon, where words are shortened in order to deal with 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)

8686-423: 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

8787-460: 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

8888-544: The text content of text messages for three months and records of to whom and when text messages were sent for two to three months. Customers on the Inner Circle plan are eligible for member benefits. The concept is the same as Virgin Mobile Canada 's program of the same name, which was first introduced in 2010, and competitor T-Mobile Tuesdays , which was introduced in 2016. Most member benefits differ between

8989-655: The total global MVNO market. It is followed by Americas with 379 MVNOs, Asia with 322, International with 131, Oceania with 84, Africa with 54 and Middle East with 5. Some MVNOs have a presence in multiple countries, either as subsidiaries, joint ventures, or through brand licensing agreements with local partners, including Lycamobile in 60 countries, Virgin Mobile in 14 countries, Lebara in 10 countries, CMLink in five countries, Tesco Mobile in four countries, Line Mobile in three countries, Aldi Talk in six countries, Kogan.com Mobile in two countries, and L-Mobi Mobile in two countries. Japan has about 80 MVNO brands, and

9090-433: 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 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

9191-626: Was able to establish an MVNO agreement with Sonera in Finland, but it failed to persuade MNOs in Sweden, Denmark, and Norway. Sense then appealed to EU regulators, citing provisions that required certain MNOs to allow new entrants interconnection. While Sense's claim was denied, in November 1999, the company signed a service provider agreement with Telia/Telenor Mobile for GSM network capacity access, allowing Sense to offer services to its own customers in Sweden and Norway. Despite Sense's initial failure,

9292-603: Was created between Virgin Group and Sprint Corporation, and Dan Schulman was brought in to run the business. Virgin Mobile USA began operating in the summer of 2002. Because prepaid mobile had a downmarket perception at the time, Virgin Mobile USA called its service "pay as you go." In May 2007, Virgin Mobile USA, Inc. initiated an initial public offering (IPO) by filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission . On October 10, 2007, Virgin Mobile's sold 27.5 million shares at US$ 15 per share, at

9393-756: 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

9494-467: Was discontinued in August 2018; the carrier then started to return Android devices to its lineup, citing consumer demand. In mid-2018 Virgin Mobile was pulled out of Target stores. Shortly thereafter a majority of the Virgin Mobile workforce was laid off. In April 2019 the brand was pulled out of Best Buy and in May, Meijer. In October 2019, Virgin Mobile was pulled from Walmart leaving the company without

9595-525: 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

9696-423: 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 a method of text communication: by

9797-408: 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,

9898-564: 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 the Internet through an SMSC , allowing communication to computers, fixed landlines , and satellite . MMS

9999-443: Was primarily young adults, and the company often utilized edgy, pop culture content when advertising. On March 15, 2010, Lady Gaga released the music video for Telephone which included product placement for a Virgin Mobile branded LG Rumor. Beginning on May 2, 2011, Virgin Mobile USA launched a campaign that revolved around a fictional Hollywood celebrity couple " Sparah ". The campaign was expected to last six months, but ran through

10100-495: 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

10201-490: Was very successful, attracting more than 300,000 subscribers in 18 months. Vodafone purchased the business in 1999. With European markets newly open to competition and new technology enabling better service and cheaper handsets, there was a massive surge in demand for cellular phones. In the midst of this swell, Sense Communications fought for access to mobile network operator (MNO) spectrum in Scandinavia in 1997. Sense

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