The SMS kid, just over ten years old, is cuddled by one and all. Youngsters in the age group of 15 to 24 are the foster parents. The baby was born during early nineties (1992), when a message generated from a PC was sent to a mobile phone on the Vodafone GSM network in UK. Quickly, it has grown from mobile terminating phase1 to mobile originating phase2. Now, the SMS magic spans from "sundry" to "saving life", thus, at times it assumes the role of "GOD".

In just over a decade, the number of SMS messages that crisscross the globe rose from a mere one to one billion per day! The text messaging was so high that one mobile operator has even gone to the extent of campaigning to its subscribers about "Carpal Channel Syndrome"a syndrome caused due to excessive messaging! Leaving aside the repercussions, the world simply is on a "texting binge".

It all started on December 3, 1992, when Neil Papworth of Sema Plc. (now a unit of Schlumberger Limited) used his PC to send what's generally believed to have been the first SMS message"Merry Christmas" to the cell phone of Richard Jarvis, then a director at UK telecom giant Vodafone. Since then, the world is wedded to 160 characters (7-bit code) that enable us to express varied feelings and vital informations. Today, SMS has, to a large extent, replaced all other known human forms of communication including email (Refer Graph 1)

Among the world markets that vouch for SMS, Europe, followed by Asia leads the pack. A total of more than 15 billion messages are sent every month in Europeon an average 35 messages are exchanged per user per month. Ireland recorded the highest level of SMS usage in 2003 with 82 SMS messages being sent per end-user per month. About 66% of Australians own mobile, of which more than 53% use SMS at least once in a day. Interestingly, the US has been slow in embracing SMS. Compatibility constraints (GSM vs. CDMA), and the US users' inclination towards PC over mobile phone for all information needs are cited as the two key reasons for this anomaly.

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