4 ms·

It took a long time to take off in the UK too, despite heading calling party pays. SMS enablement was a subscription service - £5/month from memory - and initia

It took a long time to take off in the UK too, despite heading calling party pays. SMS enablement was a subscription service - £5/month from memory - and initially there want interconnect between mobile networks so texts were limited to those on the same provider. On the other hand, the original plans were all you can eat, and pager gateways worked for SMS too. It took off when interconnect was sorted.

Zenst 9y ago
Initially it was within the same network, I believe Orange (previously Hutchinsons, then merged with EE, who themselves known as T-Mobile) was the first to offer a consumer service, called Orange Messaging. As an aside they also offered a second line on the same phone,meaning you had 2 number an option not offered these days alas. But nice trick was to set a foreign SMSC, this not only enabled you to send SMS to other UK networks, but also didn't charge you. Circa 1998 era.
- dazc 9y ago
  Back in the day, Orange were truly innovative although their promise of a wire-free future was a bit optimistic.
mattmanser 9y ago
I was regularly texting in 1998 with friends at university i.e. they'd taken off sufficiently that within 5 years poor university students were texting each other. It was always a case of buying a £5 credit, or you might text a friend back a few days later because you had no credit. I even remember in my sixth-form, in 1995/1996 one guy did a presentation for his physics assignment about how using a mobile fried your brain, and the richer (middle-class) kids all had one by then. So this isn't true at all, within 2/3 years it was becoming main-stream in the UK. I still remember in the early 2000s Americans in their TV shows were all about pagers, which never really took off in the UK, and it was like they lived in a totally different world, communication wise.

4 ms·

It took a long time to take off in the UK too, despite heading calling party pays. SMS enablement was a subscription service - £5/month from memory - and initia

by timthorn 9y ago

Zenst 9y ago
Initially it was within the same network, I believe Orange (previously Hutchinsons, then merged with EE, who themselves known as T-Mobile) was the first to offer a consumer service, called Orange Messaging. As an aside they also offered a second line on the same phone,meaning you had 2 number an option not offered these days alas. But nice trick was to set a foreign SMSC, this not only enabled you to send SMS to other UK networks, but also didn't charge you. Circa 1998 era.
- dazc 9y ago
  Back in the day, Orange were truly innovative although their promise of a wire-free future was a bit optimistic.
mattmanser 9y ago
I was regularly texting in 1998 with friends at university i.e. they'd taken off sufficiently that within 5 years poor university students were texting each other. It was always a case of buying a £5 credit, or you might text a friend back a few days later because you had no credit. I even remember in my sixth-form, in 1995/1996 one guy did a presentation for his physics assignment about how using a mobile fried your brain, and the richer (middle-class) kids all had one by then. So this isn't true at all, within 2/3 years it was becoming main-stream in the UK. I still remember in the early 2000s Americans in their TV shows were all about pagers, which never really took off in the UK, and it was like they lived in a totally different world, communication wise.