The first SMS (Short Message Service) in the world was sent 30 years ago, on December 3, 1992, by the British telecommunications engineer Neil Papworth, at Sema Group Telecoms, in the United Kingdom.

The message, a "Merry Christmas" wish, was sent from Neil Papworth's computer to the Orbitel 901 mobile phone of Richard Jarvis, from Vodafone.

The historic moment reached a new level in December 2021, when the first 15-character SMS was auctioned as an NFT for 107,000 euros, during an event organized by the Aguttes in France.

In Portugal, the messaging service was launched in October 1995, when TMN (currently MEO) and Telecel (currently Vodafone) were in the market for mobile operators, according to data sent to Lusa by the Autoridade Nacional de Comunicações (ANACOM).

The growth of SMS had one of its turning points in February 2000, when an agreement was signed between the three existing operators (after the emergence of Optimus in 1998, currently NOS) to allow users to communicate between the different networks, refers to regulator.

The peak of SMS traffic was reached in 2012, a period in which each effective user sent 180 messages per month, in a total of 27,860,126 messages.

Still according to ANACOM data, this number has been decreasing. In 2021, 68 SMS were sent per effective user per month (-62% compared to 2012), totalling 10,729,392.