Neil Papworth (born 1969) is a British software architect, designer and developer. He is known as the sender of the first ever

text message Text messaging, or texting, is the act of composing and sending electronic messages, typically consisting of alphabetic and numeric characters, between two or more users of mobile devices, desktops/ laptops, or another type of compatible comput ...

(also known as

SMS Short Message/Messaging Service, commonly abbreviated as SMS, is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile devices exchange short text ...

message) in 1992.

Personal life

Neil Papworth was born on 28 December 1969 in

Reading, Berkshire Reading ( ) is a town and borough in Berkshire, Southeast England, southeast England. Located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the rivers River Thames, Thames and River Kennet, Kennet, the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 mot ...

, United Kingdom. Papworth obtained his HND (

Higher National Diploma Higher National Diploma (HND), part of the Higher Nationals suite of qualifications, is an academic higher education qualification in the United Kingdom and various other countries. They were first introduced in England and Wales in 1920 alongsi ...

) in Computer Studies from the

University of West London The University of West London (UWL) is a public research university in the United Kingdom with campuses in Ealing, Brentford, and in Reading, Berkshire. The university has roots in 1860, when the Lady Byron School was founded, later Ealing Col ...

. He spent his childhood in

Wokingham Wokingham is a market town in Berkshire, England, west of London, southeast of Reading, north of Camberley and west of Bracknell. History Wokingham means 'Wocca's people's home'. Wocca was apparently a Saxon chieftain who may als ...

, Berkshire, and began his professional career at Ferranti International in

Bracknell Bracknell () is a large town and civil parish in Berkshire, England, the westernmost area within the Greater London Built-up Area, Greater London Urban Area and the administrative centre of the Bracknell Forest, Borough of Bracknell Forest. It l ...

, United Kingdom. Papworth then settled in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

, Ontario, Canada in 2000, and subsequently in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

in 2002.

Career

Neil Papworth started his career at

Ferranti Ferranti or Ferranti International plc was a UK electrical engineering and equipment firm that operated for over a century from 1885 until it went bankrupt in 1993. The company was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. The firm was known ...

International in Bracknell on aeronautical and military applications from 1988 to 1991. He designed and programmed a movable vehicle satellite antenna and implemented software for automated helicopter-landing aids. In 1991, he began working for

Sema Group Sema Group plc was an Anglo-French IT services company. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It was acquired by Schlumberger in 2001. History The Company was founded in 1988 by the merger of t ...

in Reading, Berkshire. He spent a large amount of time from 1993 onwards travelling around the world installing SMS systems. He relocated to Sema Group's

office in January 2000. He settled in

, Quebec in September 2002. He remained with Sema Group (which became Airwide Solutions) until 2011. Since then, he worked for

Tekelec Tekelec, Inc. was a Morrisville, North Carolina based telecommunications company. It developed hardware and software for networks that are fixed, wireless, or packet-based. It provided IP services to help mobile carriers with network signaling, p ...

, a telecommunications company, recently bought by

Oracle Corporation Oracle Corporation is an American multinational computer technology corporation headquartered in Austin, Texas. In 2020, Oracle was the third-largest software company in the world by revenue and market capitalization. The company sells da ...

. He worked at Oracle on 4G related technologies. In 2018, he started working at TriNimbus, a company providing Amazon Web Services consulting to customers, which was subsequently acquired by Onica in 2018, and then Onica was subsequently acquired by Rackspace in 2019.

Contribution to text messaging

In 1992, Neil Papworth was working as a developer and test engineer at

Telecoms, in a team developing a Short Message Service Centre ( SMSC) for their customer,

Vodafone UK Vodafone UK is a British telecommunications services provider, and a part of Vodafone Group Plc, the world's second-largest mobile phone company. Vodafone is the third-largest mobile network operator in the United Kingdom, with 16.9 million s ...

Newbury, Berkshire Newbury is a market town in the county of Berkshire, England, and is home to the administrative headquarters of West Berkshire Council. The town centre around its large market square retains a rare medieval Cloth Hall, an adjoining half timbere ...

. As part of this project, he sent the world's first

, on 3 December 1992, at the age of 22. It was sent from a computer. The message was "Merry Christmas", and was sent to Richard Jarvis, a director at

Vodafone Vodafone Group Public limited company, plc () is a British Multinational corporation, multinational Telephone company, telecommunications company. Its registered office and Headquarters, global headquarters are in Newbury, Berkshire, England. It ...

, who was enjoying his office Christmas party. Richard Jarvis received the message on an

Orbitel 901 Orbitel may be: * Orbitel (Bulgarian company), a wireline telecommunications and Internet service provider with national licences for voice and data * Orbitel (Colombian company) Orbitel (UNE EPM Telecomunicaciones) was the international business ...

handset. Papworth gained popularity during the 10th and 20th anniversaries of the first text message, as highlighted in the press, and has been featured in several outlets such as a Super Bowl commercial, a documentary movie, a ''

Jeopardy! ''Jeopardy!'' is an American game show created by Merv Griffin. The show is a quiz competition that reverses the traditional question-and-answer format of many quiz shows. Rather than being given questions, contestants are instead given genera ...

'' question, and radio talk shows.

References

External links

Neil Papworth
Official website {{DEFAULTSORT:Papworth, Neil Living people 1969 births