<P> The service is referred to by different colloquialisms depending on the region . It may simply be referred to as a "text" in North America, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines, an "SMS" in most of mainland Europe, or an "MMS" or "SMS" in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia . The sender of a text message is commonly referred to as a "texter". </P> <P> In 1933 RCA Communications, New York introduced the first "telex" service . The first messages over RCA transatlantic circuits were between New York City and London and, in the first year of operation, approximately seven million words (300,000 radiograms) were transmitted . Radio has long sent alphanumeric messages via radiotelegraphy . The University of Hawaii began using radio to send digital information as early as 1971, using ALOHAnet . Friedhelm Hillebrand conceptualised SMS in 1984 while working for Deutsche Telekom . Sitting at a typewriter at home, Hillebrand typed out random sentences and counted every letter, number, punctuation, and space . Almost every time, the messages contained fewer than 160 characters, thus giving the basis for the limit one could type via text messaging . With Bernard Ghillebaert of France Télécom, he developed a proposal for the GSM (Groupe Spécial Mobile) meeting in February 1985 in Oslo . The first technical solution evolved in a GSM subgroup under the leadership of Finn Trosby . It was further developed under the leadership of Kevin Holley and Ian Harris (see Short Message Service). SMS forms an integral part of SS7 (Signalling System No. 7). Under SS7, it is a "state" with a 160 character data, coded in the ITU - T "T. 56" text format, that has a "sequence lead in" to determine different language codes, and may have special character codes that permits, for example, sending simple graphs as text . This was part of ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) and since GSM is based on this, made its way to the mobile phone . Messages could be sent and received on ISDN phones, and these can send SMS to any GSM phone . The possibility of doing something is one thing, implementing it another, but systems existed from 1988 that sent SMS messages to mobile phones (compare ND - NOTIS). </P> <P> SMS messaging was used for the first time on 3 December 1992, when Neil Papworth, a 22 - year - old test engineer for Sema Group in the UK (now Airwide Solutions), used a personal computer to send the text message "Merry Christmas" via the Vodafone network to the phone of Richard Jarvis who was at a party in Newbury, Berkshire which had been organised to celebrate the event . Modern SMS text messaging is usually messaging from one mobile phone to another mobile phone . Radiolinja became the first network to offer a commercial person - to - person SMS text messaging service in 1994 . When Radiolinja's domestic competitor, Telecom Finland (now part of TeliaSonera) also launched SMS text messaging in 1995 and the two networks offered cross-network SMS functionality, Finland became the first nation where SMS text messaging was offered on a competitive as well as on a commercial basis . GSM was allowed in the United States and the radio frequencies were blocked and awarded to US "Carriers" to use US technology . Hence there is no "development" in the US in mobile messaging service . The GSM in the US had to use a frequency allocated for private communication services (PCS)--what the ITU frequency régime had blocked for DECT--Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications--1000 - feet range picocell, but survived . American Personal Communications (APC), the first GSM carrier in America, provided the first text - messaging service in the United States . Sprint Telecommunications Venture, a partnership of Sprint Corp. and three large cable - TV companies, owned 49 percent of APC . The Sprint venture was the largest single buyer at a government - run spectrum auction that raised $7.7 billion in 2005 for PCS licenses . APC operated under the brand name of Sprint Spectrum and launched its service on November 15, 1995 in Washington, D.C. and in Baltimore, Maryland . Vice President Al Gore in Washington, D.C. made the initial phone - call to launch the network, calling Mayor Kurt Schmoke in Baltimore . </P> <P> Initial growth of text messaging was slow, with customers in 1995 sending on average only 0.4 message per GSM customer per month . One factor in the slow take - up of SMS was that operators were slow to set up charging systems, especially for prepaid subscribers, and to eliminate billing fraud, which was possible by changing SMSC settings on individual handsets to use the SMSCs of other operators . Over time, this issue 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 . SMS is available on a wide range of networks, including 3G networks . However, not all text - messaging systems use SMS; some notable alternate implementations of the concept include J - Phone's SkyMail and NTT Docomo's Short Mail, both in Japan . E-mail messaging from phones, as popularized by NTT Docomo's i - mode and the RIM BlackBerry, also typically use standard mail protocols such as SMTP over TCP / IP . As of 2007 text messaging was the most widely used mobile data service, with 74% of all mobile phone users worldwide, or 2.4 billion out of 3.3 billion phone subscribers, at the end of 2007 being active users of the Short Message Service . In countries such as Finland, Sweden and Norway, over 85% of the population use SMS . The European average is about 80%, and North America is rapidly catching up with over 60% active users of SMS by end of 2008 . The largest average usage of the service by mobile phone subscribers occurs in the Philippines, with an average of 27 texts sent per day per subscriber . </P>

When did texting become available on cell phones