World’s first-ever SMS, which read “Merry Christmas,” sold for Rs 91.35 lakh on the NFT market

Team Udayavani, Dec 23, 2021, 10:39 AM IST

Image credit: Timesnow

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.

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.