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Re: [LUG] SMS message delivered protocol

 

On 15/11/10 07:24, Gordon Henderson wrote:
On Mon, 15 Nov 2010, Henry Bremridge wrote:


Some mobile phones / networks have a message delivered feature. An issue
came up the other day as to when a message was delivered to a phone.
(Partly because I feel that it is less intrusive to send a text than call a
mobile, when the other party could be busy.)

For emails, you can ask to be notified if a message is received: in this
the receiving email program sends an email back saying delivered.

Not guaranteed. For example emails to me will never get automatically acknowledged, no matter how you send them. The best you'll be able to find out is the log-file of the last server you have access to. Even if that's the one that connects to my network, then the best you'd get is that it was accepted by the server - you've no ideal what then happens - this is true for most email systems now.

For mobiles, if I look on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS, it seems that
"SMS messages are delivered to the operator's SMSC, but
not the subscriber's handset; the SMSC takes care of further handling of
the message through the SS7 network."

It goes on to draw distinctions between
-   local termination model. Aggregators lack direct access into the SS7
   protocol, which is the protocol where the SMS messages are exchanged.
   SMS messages are delivered to the operator's SMSC, but not the
   subscriber's handset; the SMSC takes care of further handling of the
   message through the SS7 network.
-  international termination model. The advantage of this model is the
  ability to route data directly through SS7, which gives the provider
  total control and visibility of the complete path during SMS routing.

So on mobiles in UK the "message delivered" option means the message is
delivered to the recipient operators via the local termination model?

Can anyone shed light or point me to a website that highlights which mobile
phone companies operation "local termination centres" or "international
termination model"

As far as I'm aware, it's effectively the (whole) company who's the "local termination centre".

You can ask your phone to give you a delivery report, but not all UK networks support this. e.g. Orange charge a penny for it, but O2 doesn't support it at all. (There is a bodge on O2 by prefixing the messages with *0# but it's not perfect) Other mobile networks vary... The reply seems to come when the phone gets the message, not when the user reads the message...

However there is a world of difference between delivered and read.. Like email, best to treat it as 'fire and forget' ...

Gordon

You can of course, if you NEED confirmation, agree some form of handshaking as 'proof' of acknowledgement of the message. Can be just as simple as replying to the message with no addition or pgp'ing a reply etc - can you do that in sms?
Tom te tom te tom

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