"SMS" redirects here. For other uses, see SMS (disambiguation).
SMS arrival notification on a Siemens phoneShort Message Service (SMS) is
a service available on most digital mobile phones (and other mobile devices,
e.g. a Pocket PC, or occasionally even desktop computers) that permits the
sending of short messages (also known as text messages, or more colloquially
SMSes, texts or even txts) between mobile phones, other handheld devices and
even landline telephones. The term text messaging and its variants are more
commonly used in North America, the UK, and the Philippines, while most other
countries prefer the term SMS. Text messages are often used to interact with a
utomated systems, such as ordering products and services for mobile phones, or
participating in contests. There are also many services available on the Internet
that allow users to send text messages free of charge.
A mobile or cellular telephone is a long-range, portable electronic device
for personal telecommunications over long distances.
Most current mobile phones connect to a cellular network
of base stations (cell sites), which is in turn interconnected
to the public switched telephone network (PSTN) (the exception
are satellite phones). Cellular networks were first introduced
in the early to mid 1980s (the 1G generation). Prior mobile phones
operating without a cellular network (the so-called 0G generation),
such as Mobile Telephone Service, date back to 1945. Until the mid to
late 1980s, most mobile phones were sufficiently large that they were
permanently installed in vehicles as car phones. With the advance of
miniaturization, currently the vast majority of mobile phones are handheld.
In addition to the standard voice function of a telephone, a mobile phone can
support many additional services such as SMS for text messaging, email, packet
switching for access to the Internet, and MMS for sending and receiving photos
and video.
The world's largest mobile phone manufacturers
include Audiovox, BenQ-Siemens, High Tech Computer
Corporation, Fujitsu, Kyocera, LG, Motorola, NEC,[i-mate]
, Nokia, Panasonic (Matsushita Electric), Pantech Curitel,
Philips, Sagem, Samsung, Sanyo, Sharp, Siemens SK Teletech,
Sony Ericsson, T&A Alcatel, and Toshiba.
The telephone or phone is a telecommunications device which is used
to transmit and receive sound (most commonly voice and speech) across
distance. Most telephones operate through transmission of electric
signals over a complex telephone network which allows almost any phone
user to communicate with almost any other.