Text Messaging: The Crown Jewel of Wireless Data

Since its commercial launch in the mid 1990s, wireless text messaging has proven to be a useful, convenient, and often indispensable service for cell phone users around the world. As the most popular (and cheapest to provide) mobile data service, text messaging has also become a major cash cow for wireless carriers.

Simple (SMS) text messages of 255 characters or less can be sent from one cell phone to another (regardless of carrier) at an average cost of $0.10 a pop, allowing customers to “trade notes” back and forth without actually making a call. Ten cents might not seem like much for a pay-per-use service, but usage of over 1 trillion messages a year has turned SMS into the most lucrative segment of the cellular data market.

Variations on the SMS theme, most notably instant messaging (IM) and multimedia messaging (MMS) have also been launched by carriers, with varying degrees of success. A 2006 report by the GSM Association indicated that MMS was the third most popular mobile data service, but was still dwarfed by simple text messaging in terms of raw volume.

In the past few years, it appears that customers have become increasingly comfortable with the idea of wireless messaging, even using it for the most personal and emotional of communications. The convenience and simplicity of SMS text messaging in particular has made it a truly self-promoting and largely irreplaceable technology for customers and carriers alike.


Published by TeleClick Enterprises
Edited by Jeremy Maddock