SMS as part of GSM

The idea of adding text messaging to the services of mobile users was latent in many communities of mobile communication services at the beginning of the 1980s. Experts from several of those communities contributed in the discussions on which should be the GSM services. Most thought of SMS as providing a means to alert the individual mobile user, for example, of a deposited voice mail, whereas others had more sophisticated applications in their minds, such as telemetry. However, few believed that SMS would be used as a means for sending text messages from one mobile user to another.

As early as February 1985, after having already been discussed in GSM subgroup WP3, chaired by J. Audestad, 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 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 then concluded in the recommendation GSM 02.03 "TeleServices supported by a GSM PLMN".Here a rudimentary description of the three services was given:

Short message Mobile Terminated (SMS-MT)/ Point-to-Point: the ability of a network to transmit a Short Message to a mobile phone. The message can be sent by phone or by a software application.

Short message Mobile Originated (SMS-MO)/ Point-to-Point: the ability of a network to transmit a Short Message sent by a mobile phone. The message can be sent to a phone or to a software application.

Short message Cell Broadcast.


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