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Sending SMS messages, technically identified as Short Message System (SMS), but also known as "texting", is a simple, effortless, and handy manner to keep in touch among smartphones.  Not just a great means for people to correspond, SMS can be a handy method for software applications to exchange simple messages, and even setup commands, to and from  mobile phones.  text messages does not need a direct connection between cell phones; the communications infrastructure for the process is already in place, and it functions across most cellular networks. One feature of text messaging that makes it particularly handy for mobile software programs is that it uses mobile phone fixed identity, the phone number. This facet gives a distinct benefit over other technologies that utilize IP addresses because a cell phone IP address will vary depending on current network.

Short Message Service (SMS) is a communication service component of the GSM mobile communication system.  It utilizes uniform communications protocols that allow sending and receiving short text messages between mobiles. SMS text messaging is the most widely used data application in the world, with almost two and a half billion active users, or almost 75% of all mobile phone subscribers.

SMS texting as used on modern smartphones was originally defined as part of the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) series of standards in 1985  as a system of sending messages of up to 160 characters, to and from GSM mobile handsets.  Since the mid-eighties service support has extended to include other mobile technologies such as ANSI CDMA networks and Digital AMPS, as well as satellite and landline networks.  Most SMS messages are mobile-to-mobile text messages, though the standard supports other types of broadcast messaging as well.  Computer to cell phone SMS texting capabilities are also growing rapidly.

GSM was initially referred to Groupe Spécial Mobile.  It is the most accepted standard for mobile telephone systems on the planet. The GSM Association, the promoting industry organization of mobile phone operators and manufacturers, estimates that about 80% of the global mobile market uses it.  GSM is enjoyed by over 3 billion people across more than two hundred countries and territories.  Its ubiquity  enables international roaming arrangements between mobile phone operators, providing subscribers the benefit of their mobile phones in many parts of the world.  GSM has evolved from its forerunner technologies in that both signaling and speech channels are digital.  This means GSM is thought of as a second generation (2G) mobile phone system.  Additionally, this  eases the extensive deployment of data communication programs.

Recent versions of the standard are backward-compatible with the original GSM system.  Release '97 of the standard added packet data capabilities by means of General Packet Radio Service (GPRS). Release '99 introduced higher speed data transmission through Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE).

General packet radio service (GPRS) is a packet oriented mobile data service available to users of the 2G and 3G GSM. In 2G systems.  GPRS data transfer is usually charged per megabyte of datatransferred, while data communication using traditional circuit switching is charged per unit of connection time, without consideration of whether or not the user actually is transmitting or if it is idle. GPRS is a best-effort packet switched service, as opposed to circuit switching, that has assured quality of service during the connection for non-mobile users.

2G cellular systems combined with GPRS are regularly called 2.5G.  2.5G is a technology bridge transitioning between the second (2G) and third (3G) generations of smartphone telephony. It provides moderate-speed data transfer, by using unused time division multiple access (TDMA) channels. Initially it was intended to broaden GPRS to cover other standards, but these networks are converting to the GSM standard.   GPRS is integrated into GSM Release 97 and newer releases.

GPRS was created as a GSM response to the earlier CDPD and i-mode packet switched cellular technology.  Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD) was a wide-area mobile data service which used unused bandwidth normally used by AMPS mobile phones.  It was dropped along with with the discontinuation of the parent AMPS service.

CDPD was developed in the early 1990’s, and was seen as a future technology. However, it had competition from existing slower but cheaper Mobitex and DataTac systems.  CDPD never gained common acceptance before newer, faster standards such as GPRS earned common acceptance and started dominating.

For consumer markets CDPD had very limited offerings.  AT&T Wireless first sold the technology in the America under the brandname PocketNet, one of the very first consumer wireless web service offers. Cingular Wireless later offered CDPD under the Wireless Internet brand (as opposed to Wireless Internet Express, Cingular Wireless GPRS/EDGE data). AT&T Wireless PocketNet failed as a product launch.  However, CDPD was adopted into several enterprise and government networks.  It was particularly popular as a first-generation wireless data solution for telemetry devices (machine to machine communications) and for public safety mobile data terminals.

Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) (also referred to as Enhanced GPRS (EGPRS), or IMT Single Carrier (IMT-SC), and Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolution) is a backward-compatible digital mobile technology that supplies improved data transmission rates on top of standard GSM.  EDGE is considered a 3G radio technology.  EDGE delivers  more than three-fold improvement in both the capacity and performance of GSM/GPRS networks by utilizing advanced methods of coding and transmitting data, that produce higher bit-rates per radio channel.  EDGE delivers broadband performance and can be used for high bandwidth data applications such as Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS).

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Tags: employee monitoring, GPRS, GSM, mobile SMS, parental monitoring, SMS monitoring