On 15-Dec-08 22:47, Nicolas Alvarez wrote:
> Jim Henderson wrote:
>> On Mon, 15 Dec 2008 18:10:58 -0200, Nicolas Alvarez wrote:
>>
>>> Jim Henderson wrote:
>>>> Well, and the "lingo" evolved because the billing used to be "by the
>>>> character", IIRC.
>>> Not really. It's because SMS messages are limited to 160 characters.
>> Well, yeah, but each message used to be (and in some places/on some
>> plans, still is) billed by the message.  That's what I was thinking.  So
>> conserving space was/is an important consideration in that venue.
> 
> Yes, definitely.
> 
> I mean it was never charged per character. It was and is charged per
> message, but their length is ridiculously limited :)
> 
IIRC the length was such that when the telephone switched to switched 
packets this was what could fit in one packet. Added as a funny extra in 
the protocol, never intended to be really used. D*mned internet, I can't 
find that story, so it is probably not true :( One used to be able to 
say such things and if they were not true you could at least have 
started a meme.

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