How SMS Works

Short Message Service actually refers to a framework that uniquely allows computers, or in this case phones, to communicate with each other without the need of a central hub. With SMS, phones can find each other, send short packets of information back and forth, and do it all without any central computer to guide them. But because the system does not rely upon fixed lines like a land based telephone system does, the amount of information that can be sent at one time is limited in size. This depends on the language spoken, but for English letters this typically means around 150 characters.

The most common form of SMS is ‘texting’. This usually takes place with a cellular phone in which individuals use the letters behind the number pad on their phone to spell out words and phrases and then send them out. Because many companies charge by the word, individuals have come up with a sort of ‘texting slang’ to cut down on the amount of words required to convey a particular message. For example, ‘gr8’ and ‘BTW’ mean ‘great’ and ‘by the way’. In addition, other words have just been shortened, such as ‘lata’ to mean ‘later’. Most users simply pick up the lingo through frequent use, and although some slang is widely understood and used, other shortcuts are developed within circles of friends and family.

The major advantage of SMS is its price. The price is typically $0.05 per message, a significant cut below that of traditional telephony and cell phone per-minute charges. The savings of SMS has its roots in the nature of the technology. Short Message Service, like SIP, is modeled on a peer to peer model and not a cog and wheel like traditional communication systems. This means that instead of having to route a message through a central hub, your text goes straight from you to its destination. This has radically cut down on the cost of SMS implementation and led to its overwhelming popularity throughout the world.

Short Message Service (SMS) has radically changed the face of the communications industry. While the practice has become quite common throughout the world, it has only recently become popular here in the United Stats, a growth partly predicated upon, surprisingly enough, its featured role in the show American Idol. The fact that ‘texting’ is quickly gaining both in popularity and recognition in the United States is not surprising however, due to its ability to offer users a cheap, quick, and often fun way to communicate with friends and family.

Busy executives, decision makers and other people taking advantage of computing in work and meaningful pursuits need all the quality information they can get. They turn to the web because it has amassed huge amounts of information in almost all areas of human activities. But what is information in the first place? Technically speaking, “information is stimuli that have meaning in some context for its receiver. When information is entered into and stored in a computer, it is generally referred to as data – information translated into a form that is more convenient to move or process. When information is packaged or used for understanding or doing something, it is known as knowledge – to an enterprise or an individual, the possession of information or the ability to quickly locate it.” For the purpose here, I think the term ‘information’ is the correct description of some of what is available on the web, rather than knowledge or wisdom.

Advances in web technologies and their growing usage have made the production, distribution, and sharing of information so much easier than what it was only a decade ago. It has reduced the time span of business practices and processes, which would otherwise have taken very long time to be implemented on ground. But information comes with an additional excess of irrelevant junk, unclear and inaccurate data, even conflicting, making it becomes difficult to sift what is important from what is not. This “excess information beyond what is desired or needed by any user requiring non productive processing” is called information overload. The number of work hours available and the inherent human capacity to absorb information have remained almost same over years whereas the need to access, understand and digest information had gone up many times.