Segmentation and Backward Send Issues

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John Mersk
New member
Username: Johnmersk

Post Number: 2
Registered: 11-2005
Posted on Monday, December 19, 2005 - 09:09 am:   

Hi Bryce,

We have customers in the US using Cingular. We haven't verified yet if all of our Cingular customers are experiencing this issue: When they send msgs to our relay number, their msgs are split into 2 or more files when its msg content exceeds 160chars. However, this does not happen to our non-Cingular customers (their msgs are recvd by NowSMS as whole, that is, although msgs can have more than 160chars, it's still being recvd as one file only).

Second issue is when our T-Mobile relay number sends msgs to one particular customer, she says that sometimes she receives msgs backwards, that is, the last part comes first, then the 2nd part and lastly, the 1st part of the msg (and so on).Pls note that this happen only some of the times, not all of the time.

Could you pls advise us how to fix these issues? Appreciate your reply.

John Mersk
Bryce Norwood - NowSMS Support
Board Administrator
Username: Bryce

Post Number: 5369
Registered: 10-2002
Posted on Tuesday, December 20, 2005 - 05:43 pm:   

Hi John,

Are you using a GSM modem to send your messages?

Unfortunately, the SMS interconnections between the US mobile operators are not very good. Basically, they don't support binary messaging across operators.

The technical reason behind this is that binary messaging formats are different between GSM (Cingular, T-Mobile) and CDMA (Verizon, Sprint, Alltel) environments. And some message formats, like long SMS messages aren't even supported in CDMA environments.

The result is that the SMS interconnection between the mobile operators plays to the lowest common denominator.

If you want to confirm this, then I'd suggest running some tests sending long messages from a regular phone.

It's unfortunate, but the only real alternative seems to be using an SMS provider that supports binary messaging into both Cingular and T-Mobile. Or, two GSM modems, and requiring customers to tell you which operator they are using. (Here's a link that explains how to specify which route to use for sending out a message when you have multiple SMSC connections: http://support.nowsms.com/discus/messages/1/11908.html)

-bn
John Mersk
New member
Username: Johnmersk

Post Number: 3
Registered: 11-2005
Posted on Wednesday, December 21, 2005 - 10:00 am:   

Hi Bryce,

Yes, we are using GSM modem (SE GC79 card using T-Mobile). We are experiencing the first issue w/ Cingular customers. Does it mean that although T-Mobile and Cingular are using GSM, they may still have incompatibilities? Pls advise.

So far, we haven't heard of any Verizon and Sprint complaints although there are some minor issues.

Appreciate your reply.

John