25th Anniversary of the Text Message

It’s been 25 years since the world’s first-ever text message was sent, an innovation that has shaped modern communication.  The first text message was sent in December 1992 by British engineer Neil Papworth to an executive at Vodafone. It was sent as the company celebrated its Christmas party and read “Merry Christmas”.

That first SMS (it stands for short message service) wasn’t even sent on a mobile phone. Handsets could only receive messages, not send them, so Mr. Papworth typed out the message on a computer.

It took nearly a year to develop the technology for phones to also send text messages, but took several more years for texting to catch on. It was in 1993 that Nokia introduced the SMS feature on its handsets, with a 160-character limit. In 1999, the text messages could be exchanged over different telecom networks, and the first emojis were created in Japan.

Papworth says about the SMS, “In 1992, I had no idea just how popular texting would become, and that this would give rise to emojis and messaging apps used by millions.” SMS can be considered the first step towards the modern smartphone.

Senior Consultant Wim Cassard (Baltimore, MD) gave us his comments on using this technology before mass adaptation:

While working for Bell Atlantic Mobile (later Verizon) in 1994, Wim Cassard and his colleagues were provided with Motorola 550 “flip phones”…state of the art at the time.

Wim noted “As we were located in the mid-Atlantic area, and so close to DC, our office often was awarded new products or technologies to try”. “One day some office personnel and we sales types were all trying a new technology…Send a TEXT message! We stood next to each other and typed HI (4×2, 4×1) soon a very analog looking HI showed up on our phone’s screen.”

“Others tried more complex notes like HI KAREN.  I remember thinking…wow, kind of neat, but kind of clumsy…why would anyone want to do this on a regular basis? I’d rather push ONE BUTTON (speed dial back then) and TALK to my contact.”

Pretty amazing to think we’ve gone from
This:  to THIS: 

admin@abilita.com25th Anniversary of the Text Message
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WAN Summit – At The Intersection Of Technology And Business

Taki Remtulla, Abilita CTO, returns to the WAN Summit in New York this April as a panel discussion Speaker/Moderator. The WAN Summit brings together corporate WAN strategists and service provider executives to discuss common challenges, gain new perspectives, and to build business relationships with potential suppliers, customers, and peers.

Key IT trends, such as cloud services, virtualization, collaboration and big data are impacting the evolution of the enterprise WAN. The WAN Summit will review these issues along with the ongoing migration of applications to the cloud, the limitations of the public Internet and the impact of networking issues on application performance.

For details on the WAN Summit, click here.
To view Taki Remtulla’s profile page and contact information, click here.

admin@abilita.comWAN Summit – At The Intersection Of Technology And Business
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IPNC Joins Abilita

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

             CONTACT     Wim Cassard        Dennis Goodhart
    Abilita, Inc.        IP Network Consulting LLC,
       dba Abilita Metro New York
    +1 410 453 0808        +1 646 308 1580
    wcassard@abilita.com        dennis@ipnetconsult.com

NEW YORK, NY – September 21, 2016 – Abilita, Inc., is expanding to the New York Metro Area for the first time.  Abilita, recognized as one of the largest independent telecommunications consulting firms in North America, has tapped Dennis Goodhart of New York, a thirty-plus-year industry veteran, to head up the New York office.

Abilita General Manager, Derek Atkins, said, “We are very excited about our New York expansion.” He added, “New York City is a perfect market for us, and having a veteran like Dennis head up our efforts there is quite a coup. His experience in telecommunications and IT infrastructure will prove invaluable as we continue to reduce our client’s telecom expenses and offer independent consulting advice on the latest technology to help our clients expand their business.

Goodhart, founder of IP Network Consulting, is enthusiastic about the expansion: “Abilita has always had a great reputation in the telecom consulting industry.” He added, “while they have offices in many major markets, they had just never hung a shingle in Manhattan. I’ve been in this town all my life, and this is a perfect opportunity to expand my practice and provide a broader range of services to new and existing clients. ”

When it comes to business communications technology, Goodhart does not subscribe to “one size fits all.” Having come from a combined business and technology background, he understands that every business is different, and that each, unique customer requires technology that will meet their specific requirements. “Having the resources of the Abilita network of telecom consultants gives us the ability to provide additional expertise and service our clients all across North America.”

About Abilita – Founded in 2004, Abilita, Inc., is an independent telecom consulting firm with offices throughout the U.S. and Canada. They’ve recently expanded to Philadelphia and Vancouver BC, in addition to New York. Abilita provides independent audits of telecom and data expenses as well at outsourced telecom management.

About Dennis Goodhart / IPNC – Dennis Goodhart is a Telephony and IT Communications industry veteran with more than 30 years of experience and expertise. He has designed, developed, negotiated, implemented, and managed global mission critical projects of complex technology to meet client needs. Goodhart founded IP Network Consulting (IPNC) in 2007 on the belief that business communications technology is a key asset in creating and running a successful business.

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admin@abilita.comIPNC Joins Abilita
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