SMS message types

The Short Message Service(SMS) makes it possible to send and receive messages to and from mobile telephones. The messages can contain text or binary data. The text can comprise words or numbers or an alphanumeric combination. A single short message can contain up to 160 characters when Latin alphabets are used, and 70 characters when non-Latin alphabets such as Arabic and Chinese are used. The latest SMS standards released by ETSI provide an extension to send longer text messages in SMS. This technology is called concatenated SMS messages.

An SMS message can also carry binary data. A binary SMS message has 140 bytes of used data. This user data can be split into two parts: the user data header and the actual data. The user data header can be used to inform mobile phones about certain message types. This way SMS can be used to carry operator logos, ringtones, telephone settings and WAP push messages.

Although the main goal of the SMS technology is to send and receive SMS messages between mobile telephones, it is possible to send and receive messages between a mobile phone and a computer as well. The Ozeki Messages Server was developed to help exploit this possibility. The software can be used to create automated SMS services or it can be used to simply send SMS messages from popular desktop applications such as Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Outlook.

Ozeki Message Server currently supports the following message types (Figure 1).

SMS:TEXT A text message, that can contain alphanumeric characters, numbers from the default GSM alphabet. The basic message length is 160 characters. If the message length is longer it is sent using more than one messages. In this case each SMS contains 153 characters.
SMS:TEXT:GSM7BIT:CLASS0 A text SMS message. Often referred to as FLASH SMS messages. It is different from traditional messages, because it is immediately displayed on the screen of the phone and it is not saved in the memory of the phone.
SMS:TEXT:GSM7BIT:CLASS1 A text SMS message. Class1 indicates that the message should be stored on the Device.
SMS:TEXT:GSM7BIT:CLASS2 A text SMS message. Class2 indicates that the message should be stored on the SIM card.
SMS:TEXT:GSM7BIT:CLASS3 A text SMS message. Class3 indicates that the message should be sent to the terminal equipment (TE) attached to the phone.
SMS:TEXT:UCS2 A text SMS message encoded using unicode characters. This message type is used if arrabic, chinese, or other special characters should be sent. A unicode text message can contain 70 characters. If the message text is longer and concatenated messages are used, 63 unicode characters are sent in one SMS message.
SMS:BINARY A binary SMS message. The maximum message length is 140 octets.
SMS:BINARYXML A binary SMS message with direct access to the PID, DCS and UDH fields in the SMS PDU.
SMS:WAPPUSH:application/vnd.wap.sic A WAP push message containing a URL link to a WAP or Webpage.
SMS:OPLOGO An operator logo message.
SMS:OPLOGOXML An operator logo message with direct access to the country code and operator code in the message.
SMS:BARCODE A barcode message sent in SMS or MMS.
SMS:RINGTONE A ringtone message.
SMS:CALLERICON A callericon message.
SMS:PICTUREMESSAGE A picture message.
SMS:VCARD A vcard message.
SMS:VCALENDAR A vcalendar message.
SMS:INDICATION An indication message. This is a message indicating an MMS message, containing the URL of the MMS in the MMSC.
MMS:SMIL SMIL (Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language) is a language allowing the creation, definition and synchronization of multimedia elements (video, sound, still images) for Web presentation and interaction. SMIL allows sending multiple movies, still images, and sound separately but coordinate their timing.

Figure 1 - Message types

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