Editing SMS (section)

=== Growth and adoption ===
Initial growth was slow, with customers in 1995 sending on average only 0.4 messages per GSM customer per month.<ref name="gsmworld">{{cite press release |url=http://www.gsmworld.com/news/press_2001/press_releases_4.shtml |title=More Than 200 Billion GSM Text Messages Forecast for Full Year 2001 |publisher=GSM Association |date=12 February 2001 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020215194430/http://www.gsmworld.com/news/press_2001/press_releases_4.shtml |archive-date=February 15, 2002 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Initially, networks in the UK only allowed customers to send messages to other users on the same [[Mobile network operator|network]], limiting the usefulness of the service. This restriction was lifted in 1999.<ref name="First SMS" /> Over time, this issue was eliminated by switch billing instead of billing at the SMSC and by new features within SMSCs to allow blocking of foreign mobile users sending messages through it. By the end of 2000, the average number of messages reached 35 per user per month,<ref name="gsmworld" /> and on Christmas Day 2006, over 205 million messages were sent in the UK alone.<ref name="2b">{{Cite news |last=Crystal |first=David |title=2b or not 2b? |work=Guardian Unlimited |access-date=July 8, 2008 |date=July 5, 2008 |url=http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/referenceandlanguages/story/0,,2289259,00.html |location=London, UK |archive-date=July 8, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080708044626/http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/referenceandlanguages/story/0,,2289259,00.html |url-status=live }}</ref> SMS had become a social phenomenon in Finland among teens and youngsters by 1999.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Silberman |first=Steve |title=Just Say Nokia |url=https://www.wired.com/1999/09/nokia/ |access-date=2024-08-04 |magazine=Wired |language=en-US |issn=1059-1028}}</ref> SMS traffic across Europe reached 4 billion messages as of January 2000.<ref>{{cite web |date=11 June 2002 |title=Towards the Full Roll-Out of Third Generation Mobile Communications |website=[[European Union]] Law |url=https://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2002:0301:FIN:EN:PDF }}</ref>

It had become extremely popular in the [[Philippines]] by 2001 and the country was dubbed the "texting capital of the world",<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Philippine text messaging phenomenon {{!}} Philstar.com |url=https://www.philstar.com/lifestyle/business-life/2001/05/15/85823/philippine-text-messaging-phenomenon |access-date=2024-08-04 |website=www.philstar.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Celdran |first=David |date=January 2002 |title=The Philippines: SMS and Citizenship |journal=Development Dialogue |volume=1 |number=1 |pages=91–103 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233756388 }}</ref> partly helped by large numbers of free text messages offered by the mobile operators in monthly subscriptions.<ref name=":2">{{Cite news |title=Je ne texte rien |url=https://www.economist.com/business/2004/07/08/je-ne-texte-rien |access-date=2024-08-04 |newspaper=The Economist |issn=0013-0613}}</ref> SMS adoption was limited to parts of Europe and Asia during these earlier years,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2004-04-23 |title=Europe, Asia embrace GR8 way to stay in touch |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna4787668 |access-date=2024-08-16 |website=NBC News |language=en}}</ref> with U.S. adoption being low partly due to incompatible networks and cheap voice calls relative to other countries.<ref name=":2" /> ''[[The Economist]]'' wrote in 2003, as noted by an analyst:<ref>{{Cite news |title=No text please, we're American |url=https://www.economist.com/business/2003/04/03/no-text-please-were-american |access-date=2024-08-04 |newspaper=The Economist |issn=0013-0613}}</ref>

{{Quote box
| quote = The short answer is that, in America, talk is cheap. Because local calls on [[landline|land lines]] are usually free, [[mobile network operator|wireless operators]] have to offer big “bundles” of minutes—up to 5,000 minutes per month—as part of their monthly pricing plans to persuade subscribers to use mobile phones instead. [[Text messaging|Texting]] first took off in other parts of the world among cost-conscious teenagers who found that it was cheaper to text than to call [..]  Free local calls also make [[Dial-up Internet access|logging on]] to the internet, for hours at a time, and using PC-to-PC “[[instant messaging]]” (IM) the preferred mode of electronic chat among American teenagers.}}

This is also backed by the fact that as of 2003, American internet users were spending on average five times more time online than Europeans,<ref>{{Cite news |date=2003-06-30 |title=Will instant messaging be the new texting? |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3031796.stm |access-date=2024-08-05 |language=en-GB}}</ref> and many poorer countries in Europe and other regions around the world had significantly lower rates of internet access compared to the United States at the time (see [[digital divide]]), hence making SMS more accessible.<ref>{{cite web |last=Kapitsa |first=L. |date=12 December 2007 |title=Member-countries of the UNECE region are among the forerunners and today's leaders in the level of Internet development... |website=[[United Nations Economic Commission for Europe]] |format=DOC |url=https://unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/env/pp/electronictools/Mini-conference%20presentations/PRESENTATION%20-%20mini-conference2.doc }}</ref>