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

Sending SMS messages, technically defined as Short Message System (SMS), but also referred to as "texting", is a straightforward, easy, and handy manner to keep in touch among mobile devices.  Not just a very good manner for people to correspond, SMS texting can be a sensible method for software programs to exchange simple messages, and even setup commands, to and from  smartphones.  SMS doesn't need a direct connection between cell phones; the communications infrastructure for the system is already in place, and it works across most cell service providers. One characteristic of SMS messaging that makes it particularly valuable for mobile software applications is that it utilizes mobile fixed identity, the phone number. This feature provide a distinct benefit over other technologies that use IP addresses because a mobile IP address will vary depending on current network.

Short Message Service (SMS) is a communication service component of the GSM mobile communication system.  It uses standardized communications protocols that allow sending and receiving short text messages between mobile devices. SMS text messaging 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 as used on modern mobiles was initially defined as part of the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) series of protocols in 1985  as a manner of transferring messages of up to 160 characters, between GSM mobile handsets.  Since the mid-eighties service support has expanded to comprise other mobile technologies such as ANSI CDMA networks and Digital AMPS, as well as satellite and landline networks.  The largest number of SMS messages are mobile-to-mobile text messages, though the standard supports other kinds of broadcast messaging as well.  Computer to mobile phone SMS texting capabilities are also expanding rapidly.

GSM was initially known as Groupe Spécial Mobile.  It is the most accepted standard for mobile telephone systems in the world. The GSM Association, the promoting trade organization of mobile phone carriers and manufacturers, estimates that close to 80% of the global mobile market uses it.  GSM is utilized by over 3 billion people across more than 212 countries and territories.  Its ubiquity  enables international roaming arrangements between mobile phone carriers, offering subscribers the benefit of their mobile phones all over the world.  GSM has evolved from its forerunner technologies demonstrated by the fact that both signaling and speech channels are digital.  Thus GSM is considered a second generation (2G) mobile phone system.  Additionally, this  facilitates the wide-spread deployment of data communication programs.

The ubiquity of GSM implementation can be seen as a benefit for consumers that are given the ability to roam and switch carriers without having to replace their cell phones, and also to operators, who can select equipment from many equipment suppliers. GSM pioneered low-cost implementation of SMS texting, which subsequently has been supported on other mobile phone standards.

Newer versions of the standard work with the original GSM system.  Release '97 of the standard added packet data capabilities by means of General Packet Radio Service (GPRS). Release '99 introduced high 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 transfer is usually charged per megabyte of traffictransferred, while data communication using traditional circuit switching is billed per unit of connection time, regardless of whether or not the subscriber 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 guaranteed quality of service during the connection for non-mobile users.

2G cellular systems combined with GPRS are frequently called 2.5G.  2.5G is a technology bridge transitioning between the second (2G) and third (3G) generations of mobile device telephony. It delivers moderate-speed data transfer, by using unused time division multiple access (TDMA) channels. Initially there was some thought to extend GPRS to cover other standards, however 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 technologies.  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 discontinued along with with the discontinuation of the parent AMPS service.
CDPD was developed in the early 1990’s, with anticipation it would be a future technology. But, it had competition from existing slower but cheaper Mobitex and DataTac systems.  CDPD never earned general acceptance before newer, faster standards such as GPRS gained common acceptance and started dominating.

For consumer markets CDPD had very limited appeal.  AT&T Wireless initially sold the technology in the United States under the brandname PocketNet, one of the very first consumer wireless web service products. 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.  But, CDPD was adopted into a number of enterprise and government networks.  It was particularly 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 referred to as Enhanced GPRS (EGPRS), or IMT Single Carrier (IMT-SC), and Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolution) is a backward-compatible digital cell phone technology that supplies superior 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 using advanced systems of coding and transmitting data, that produce higher bit-rates per radio channel.  EDGE delivers broadband performance and supports high bandwidth data applications such as Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS).

A very interesting software program that uses the connectivity between the mobile device  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 is compatible with BlackBerry  and  Android  Smartphones,.    Visit this link for more information regarding the latest software for  Parental Monitoring and Employee Monitoring of Mobile Phones .