SMS (Short Message Service), that is now used more frequently than voice calling on mobile phones completes two decades of its existence on December 3.In a world first, on 3 December 1992, an engineer sent the message "Merry Christmas" from a PC to a mobile device using Vodafone's UK network.
But the origins of the idea date back further to Matti Makkonen. Over a pizza at a telecoms conference in 1984, the former Finnish civil servant put forward the idea of a mobile phone messaging service. This was to become the SMS (short message service) standard.
Dubbed the "father of SMS"- a title he dislikes because of the work others did to develop the technology - Matti Makkonen rarely gives interviews. However, he made an exception for the BBC's tech team with an interview via SMS.
- Tues 15:24
It’s been estimated 8 trillion test messages were sent last year. 20yrs ago how popular did you think sms would get and what did you think it would be used for?
- Tues 15:40
20yrs ago I didn’t see sms as separate issue – it was just a feature in the revolutionary mobile communications system. Very useful for quick business needs.
- Tues 15:45
You never got any money for it as you didn’t patent the idea. Is that a regret – or are you glad how things worked out?.
- Tues 15:58
I dont think I made a patentable innovation, but was one of the early persons to understand the need and the concept. I’m glad the work was done as part of GSM.
- Tues 18:03
You’ve been described as the “reluctant father of SMS” and it took a newspaper investigation to identify you. Why were you so quiet about your achievement?
- Weds 06:05
I did not consider sms as personal achievement but as result of joint effort to collect ideas and write the specifications of the services based on them.
- Weds 12:22
- Weds 12:26
No! My passion is to write correct language (Finnish), using all 160 characters.
- Weds 12:28
What do you think of people who do? Do you hate it?
- Weds 12:33
No, I don’t hate them. Actually sms can also be seen as a way for language to develop. More symbols, less characters.
- Weds 14:26
What do you make of sexting? A lot of high profile figures have come to regret some of their more explicit messages!?!
- Weds 15:18
In my mind private messages of high profile persons should be kept out of public discussion. Privacy belongs to telecommunication as much as to private letters.
- Weds 17:08
Do you suffer from text spam? If so what kind?
- Weds 17:16
Not at all. Finnish legislation is quite protective. Marketing messages are allowed only if you really allow them. Spam calls are more often problem.
- Weds 18:47
Do you prefer typing in a keypad or touchscreen? And how fast are you?
- Weds 20:11
I love touchscreen. Slow enough to think and sometimes even edit what I write.
- Weds 20:13
Will sms survive another 20 years – of will Facebook, Skype and other instant messaging chat systems take over?
- Weds 20:30
20 years is long time… I believe that reliable convenient to use text messaging will stay forever. Is not necessary what we call sms. No more pay per message.
- Thurs 10:38
It was 8 years between your idea of SMS and the first text being sent. Were you surprised it took so long?
- Thurs 14:26
No. Actually I felt myself as a customer, who had noticed a need. I was happy to see that the development was going on in a gsm working team. The real launch of the service, as I see it, was when Nokia introduced the first phone that enabled easy writing of messages (Nokia 2010 in 1994).
- Thurs 14:41
Do you have any other big idea for the future!?!
- Thurs 15:06
Not my idea but integration of mobile content display to my eyeglasses would be nice. Maybe someone is working with it?
Voda are offered with lots of attractive business mobile deals and under different categories like SIM free phones, SIM Only Deals, Contract and pay as you go etc.
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