Why 160 Characters

I have always wondered about the reasons behind the length limitation of SMSs, that has been inherited by numerous applications that use it. Mark Milian has an interesting story of how the length came out to be 160 characters. The story highlights that the research conducted to deduce the number, that was sufficient to convey messages, was driven by usability and effectiveness than technology limitations. The research team used data from postcards and telegraphs to support their assumptions. The only data type that breaks the SMS today is Web URLs, which would have been difficult to consider at that time. And that, I think, deserves its own solution.