Matti Makkonen Popularly Known As The “Father Of SMS” Dies At 63

Matti Makkonen, who is popularly known as the “father of SMS,” has died from illness at the age of 63.

Matti who hails from Finland pitched the concept of text messaging over cellular networks in 1984 and helped get the ball rolling on the technology in its earliest days.

He was quick to downplay his involvement and saw SMS as a “joint effort” between many people (Friedham Hillebrand developed the 160-character format in 1985, for example), but much of the initial credit belongs to him.