At an auction in Paris, the first text message ever sent was sold for 107,000 euros (Rs 91.35 lakh) as a non-fungible token (NFT). “Merry Christmas,” was the message sent on December 3, 1992.
Vodafone, a British telecommunications firm, auctioned off the text.
Vodafone engineer Neil Papworth sent the SMS message from his computer to a UK management. The SMS was received on a 2-kilogram “Orbitel” phone, which looks like a desk phone but has a handle and is cordless.
“They were in the middle of end-of-year events so he sent him the message ‘Merry Christmas’,” Maximilien Aguttes, head of development for the Aguttes Auction House told Reuters.
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Because selling intangible commodities is illegal in France, the auction company has packaged the text message in a digital frame that displays the code and communication protocol, according to Aguttes.`The buyer of the first SMS ever sent will receive a replica of the original communication protocol used to send the SMS, with earnings going to the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR.