SMS simply wasn't an option on the earlier GSM handsets; I remember in 1996 or so in one of the early GSM adopters -Norway - when shopping for a phone, the sale

SMS simply wasn't an option on the earlier GSM handsets; I remember in 1996 or so in one of the early GSM adopters -Norway - when shopping for a phone, the salesman showed me two identical-looking Nokia sets, a $100 price difference between them - one could send SMS, the other only receive them. I went with the more expensive one, as the cheapest monthly plans at the time ($6/month fee) priced daytime calls at $.85/minute, making SMS (at $0.15 a pop) a good deal. Edit - the handset I was upgrading from could only receive SMS; I believe my father's handset at the time couldn't even receive them - but that may have been a carrier limitation, not down to the handset capabilities.