(keitai-l) Re: 7.5% of US SMS messages lost...

From: Jonas Petersson <zap_at_xms.se>
Date: 01/20/03
Message-ID: <3E2BD67E.BDABAC0D@xms.se>
Curt Sampson wrote:
> On Mon, 20 Jan 2003, Jonas Petersson wrote:
> > True - with a synced address book, replying on the computer instead o=
f
> > the phone is really easy (I do that now and then). However, as not qu=
ite
> > everyone has the email=3D3D>SMS feature in the GSM world, this is som=
etimes
> > less good as the SMS reply would get to the person instantly whereas =
the
> > email might have to wait until the receiver gets to a computer.
> =

> You might still be missing something here: there's no problem if you
> Just Use E-mail on the phones. When I receive e-mail from someone's
> phone, it doesn't matter whether I reply on my computer or reply on my
> phone; the reply goes straight back to their phone, right away.

I'm quite aware of that. It's just that SMS is NOT email based so
therefore it doesn't work the same. I'm sure you are ware of that. *IF*
you really want to combine SMS with email, there is the option that I
described earlier - by obviously not everyone has that.

> > To most people, being able
> > to reply wherever you are is the whole point of SMS.
> =

> Right. And the whole point of e-mail on phones, too.

Correct, but that is a bigger issue. SMS is leaner and was in fact never
designed for the end user to SEND, just to receive - it just took off
anyway... Originally it was designed for the operators to send messages
about voice mail etc.

> > > 2. I have some handy translation tools available to me on my comput=
er
> > > that I don't on my keitai.
> >
> > This argument goes for zillions of things beyond translation. Though =
for
> > SMS we are talking 160*x characters where x is typically less than 10=

> > and in older phones actually 1. No essays, right?
> =

> Well, that's one of the other sad things about SMS. Docomo has always
> had 512 byte messages, and you can now set it to allow several KB
> messages (though I don't know if there are any phones yet that
> automatically combine the split parts).

The SMS chaining procedure has been around for many years (Nokia
invented it and I got the definition along with my ancient 3110) and it
as a two digit counter so it should work up to 160*100 (0 tru 99) minus
a bit of overhead. Lets say 15 KB for now. Should be plenty. I seriously
doubt you need more than that. (Anyway, it would cost you a fortune to
send it that way...)

> On the other hand, I keep phone set to truncate at 512 bytes anyway,
> because if an e-mail is longer than that I can get the gist on my phone=
,
> and then deal with the whole thing later on my computer.

Yup, this is exactly how I used it, but in 3 stages:
1) I get the first 100+ bytes of the message by SMS.
2) I fetch the actual text version of the message with my phone's IMAP
(or WAP or even webmail) feature.
3) Any attachement, HTML versions etc will (normally) be left for when I
use my real computer. (True, my 9210 can handle Word, Excel, PowerPoint
and even PDF and several audio/video attachments, but I don't want to
download them to the phone anyway.)

> > Hmm, perhaps I'm spoilt by using highend 9x10 phones for many years, =
but
> > I have no problem sending SMS when out of range....
> =

> I think you mean that you have no problem storing SMS to send later,
> right?

Correct.

> That's the same as on the Japanese phones. The point is, when I'm
> out of range, I still receive, and can send an instant reply to, all of=

> my keitai messages as long as I've got Internet access.

Unless you can get the SMSC cc: trick I described earlier you will not
receive your SMSes until you have coverage. You can still send SMSes
from your operator webmail if you have internet access. It *COULD* be
that the feature you are asking for is in the operator webmail too (it
does easily fit) - I just have not been interested enough to dig into
it.

> Do you really have coverage in Japan? Or would you just be stuck if you=

> spent two weeks here?

I have not verified GSM coverage in Japan (I assume someone on this list
would know). At worst I'd resort to webmail - that would be OKish for
two weeks. Most likely, however: if I'd go to Japan it would be for work
reasons so getting a keitai setup would be step #1... (not that it would
give me any SMSes from my Swedish operator unless I, again, manage the
SMSC trick)

					/ Jonas
-- =

Jonas Petersson, X Media Solutions | mailto:Jonas.Petersson@xms.se
Box 3294, Holmbrogr=E4nd 1, S-600 03 Norrk=F6ping | http://www.xms.se/
Tel: +46 (0)11 244805 | Fax: +46 (0)11 244809

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Received on Mon Jan 20 13:13:05 2003