{"id":65946,"date":"2012-12-01T13:58:33","date_gmt":"2012-12-01T11:58:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=65946"},"modified":"2012-12-01T14:00:54","modified_gmt":"2012-12-01T12:00:54","slug":"first-sms-was-sent-20-years-ago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cellular\/65946-first-sms-was-sent-20-years-ago.html","title":{"rendered":"First SMS was sent 20 years ago"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monday 3 December marks 20 years since the world\u2019s first SMS was sent via Vodafone UK\u2019s GSM network. The message was received on an Orbitel 901 handset and said \u201cMerry Christmas\u201d.<\/p>\n

The person who sent the message was Neil Papworth. Vodacom conducted an interview with Papworth via SMS to celebrate the event.<\/p>\n

What was the idea behind trying to send a text message that day? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Neil> We were demonstrating that txt msging worked outside the lab.<\/p>\n

Why were you picked to send the message? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Neil> I was one of a number of ppl testing and had done much of the installation & integration on the customer site.<\/p>\n

How did you check the message was delivered, where was the receiving party? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Neil> Richard Jarvis was @ the Vdf [Vodafone] Christmas party. A colleague next to him was on the phone (how old-fashioned!) to a Vdf mgr next to me.<\/p>\n

\"Orbitel<\/a>

Orbitel 901 handset<\/p><\/div>\n

How did you come up with “Merry Christmas” on December 3rd? Did you think it would take that long to deliver? :-) <\/strong><\/p>\n

Neil> What else would u send to a Christmas party ? :-)<\/p>\n

What was the moment, the atmosphere like when the message was sent and delivered? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Neil> It was a professional moment. We were under pressure 2 deliver, & we did. When it works, u just think “GR8 !”<\/p>\n

When did you realise you were the pioneer of a majorly successful global communication tool? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Neil> Ha, well I didn’t even think about it b4 it was widely reported on the 10th anniversary. So, about 10 yrs ago !<\/p>\n

What impact did the SMS have on your life personally? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Neil> I continued working with SMS for almost 20 yrs. Every yr I get a good 5 mins of fame, from coverage in the local paper 2 starring in a Superbowl ad!<\/p>\n

\"Neil<\/a>

Neil Papworth<\/p><\/div>\n

What was the most important or most memorable SMS you have sent or received? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Neil> Announcing the births of my 3 kids 2 family & friends.<\/p>\n

What famous person would you like to send a text message to and what would you write? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Neil> I’m a big F1 fan. I’d txt fellow Brit Jenson Button & say, “C u @ the race in Montreal. Fancy a pint ?”. U got his # ?<\/p>\n

Who should never text you? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Neil> My kids. Until they r old enough 2 own a phone & pay the bill themselves. :-)<\/p>\n

Imagine you had the chance to send a text message to all mobile phones in the world – what would your message be? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Neil> Don’t txt & drive!<\/p>\n

When did you write a real letter for the last time? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Neil> OMG. When I was @ Vodacom in Johannesburg I wrote some letters 2 my mum ! That was maybe 1994 !<\/p>\n

Related articles<\/h3>\n

Bulk SMS price debacle laid bare<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The true cost of an SMS<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

SMS pricing change for SA looming?<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Cell C SMS change opens can of worms<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

You are losing out on mobile data<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Monday 3 December marks 20 years since the world\u2019s first SMS was sent<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":40537,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[35,17270,203,1789],"class_list":["post-65946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cellular","tag-headline","tag-neil-papworth","tag-sms","tag-vodafone"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65946"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65946"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65996,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65946\/revisions\/65996"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}