SMS Text Messaging is hugely popular, and new technology that increases mobile phone bandwidth will make Multimedia Messages the new preferred communications method.

Sending SMS messages, technically identified as Short Message System (SMS), but also acknowledged as "texting", is a simple, effortless, and handy way to correspond among smartphones.  Not just a exceptional means for people to keep in touch, SMS can be a handy means for software applications to exchange simple messages, and even settings commands, between  mobile phones.  SMS texting does not need a direct connection between mobile phones; the communications infrastructure for the system is already in position, and it works across most mobile service providers. One facet of text messaging that makes it particularly useful for mobile software applications is that it relies on mobile phone fixed identity, the phone number. This characteristic gives a distinct benefit over other technologies that rely on 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 relies on standardized communications rules that allow incoming and outgoing short text messages between mobile phones. SMS texting is the most commonly used data application on earth, with almost two and a half billion active users, or three quarters of all cellular phone subscribers.

SMS text messaging as used on modern mobile devices was at first included as part of the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) series of standards in 1985  as a manner of exchanging messages of up to 160 characters, between GSM mobile handsets.  Since then service support has expanded to include other mobile technology 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 mobile phone SMS capabilities are also growing rapidly.

GSM was originally called Groupe Spécial Mobile.  It is the most popular standard for mobile telephone systems in the world. The GSM Association, the promoting industry organization of mobile phone operators and manufacturers, estimates that approximately 80% of the world mobile market uses it.  GSM is utilized by over 3 billion people across more than 212 countries and territories.  Its pervasiveness  allows international roaming arrangements between mobile phone carriers, offering subscribers the use of their mobile phones all over the world.  GSM differs from its predecessor technologies in that both signaling and speech channels are digital.  Thus GSM is considered a second generation (2G) mobile phone system.  Additionally, this  eases the extensive implementation of data communication programs.

The pervasiveness of GSM deployment has been a benefit for consumers that are given the option to roam and switch carriers without needing to replace their mobile devices, and also to network providers, who can choose equipment from a variety of equipment vendors. GSM pioneered low-cost implementation of SMS text messaging, which is now supported on other mobile phone standards.

Newer versions of the standard are backward-compatible with the original GSM system.  Release '97 of the standard upgraded to packet data capabilities by means of General Packet Radio Service (GPRS). Release '99 launched higher speed data transmission by means of 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 communication is usually billed per megabyte of trafficsent and received, while data transfer using traditional circuit switching is billed per unit of connection time, without regard to whether or not the user actually is using it or if it is in an idle state. 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 often described as 2.5G.  2.5G is a technology bridge between the second (2G) and third (3G) generations of cell phone telephony. It delivers moderate-speed data transfer, by using unused time division multiple access (TDMA) channels. Originally 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 developed 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.  The service was dropped in conjunction with the discontinuation of the parent AMPS service.
CDPD was developed in the early 1990’s, with anticipation it would be a future technology. However, it had competition from existing slower but cheaper Mobitex and DataTac systems.  CDPD never gained general acceptance before newer, faster standards such as GPRS earned widespread acceptance and became dominant.

For consumers CDPD had little to offer.  AT&T Wireless initially offered 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 used  by a number of enterprise and government networks.  It was especially 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 called Enhanced GPRS (EGPRS), or IMT Single Carrier (IMT-SC), and Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolution) is a backward-compatible digital mobile device technology that supplies better data transmission rates on top of standard GSM.  EDGE is referred to as a 3G radio technology.  EDGE supplies  more than three-fold increase in both the capacity and performance of GSM/GPRS networks by incorporating advanced techniques of coding and transmitting data, that deliver 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).

A very interesting software program that uses the connectivity between the smartphone  and the internet to capture and archive MMS Multi-Media Messages, GPS location,  SMS messages, and Call Event Logs is PhoneBeagle Mobile Monitoring.  Follow this link if you are interested in    Mobile Monitoring Software that works with with BlackBerry  and  Android  Smartphones,.    Visit this link for more information regarding the latest software for  Parental Monitoring and Employee Monitoring of Mobile Phones .

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