Text Messages abroad

[bruce]

I wonder if anyone has insight into this one.

I have verizon and tried out sprint for a bit last month. With verizon I am able to text friends in Canada and we both receive the messages instantly with no problems. When I was using sprint, my friend told me that the messages were coming in, but in block form like 160 characters and then another 160 characters. The messages were broken up and also coming in 1 minute, sometimes 5 minute intervals, so and not in order. So it was hard for the recipient to tell the order that the message was supposed to be in.

On my end, I was getting the messages in minute intervals and sometimes a few hours later. Messages coming locally had no issues, and I am in an upgraded area as well, so this does not seem like an issue that playing the waiting game will fix. Why is their such a difference in the way verizon processes international text versus Sprint?

[WiWavelength]

Do not send SMS greater than 160 characters. Otherwise, you are ironically misusing Short Message Service.

 

AJ

[bruce]

True...Messages sent within the US from Verizon to Verizon will come in as one unbroken message. From Verizon to other carriers, its broken up but sent right away so the messages are put in order. Also, from Verizon to Canada its one long message.

From Sprint to Canada they were broken up and out of order and delayed to many minutes apart.

[WiWavelength]

From Verizon to other carriers, its broken up but sent right away so the messages are put in order.

 

Not necessarily.  The order in which SMS are sent does not dictate the order in which they are received.

 

As I often say, if you need greater than 160 characters, send separate SMS yourself.  Or use a more appropriate medium, such as e-mail or chat.  Remember, it is called Short Message Service for a reason.

 

AJ

[Rocket87]

Why are you paying for international text when you can use an app like group me. All my friends use it, we have a chat where we all shoot the shit and make fun of each other.

 

Sent from my LG-LS980 using Tapatalk

 

 

[digiblur]

Why are you paying for international text when you can use an app like group me. All my friends use it, we have a chat where we all shoot the shit and make fun of each other.

 

Sent from my LG-LS980 using Tapatalk

Hangouts works good for this too as android users already have it.

[bruce]

 

Why are you paying for international text when you can use an app like group me. All my friends use it, we have a chat where we all shoot the shit and make fun of each other.

 

Sent from my LG-LS980 using Tapatalk

 

 

The phone in question is a basic phone, so no apps

If it was a smartphone then  whatsapp is what I would use. I don't want to be like a troll, but my questions was skimmed over. The main point was not the out of orderness, but rather the time delay of minutes to hours, vs the seconds it took on verizon.

[S4GRU]

The phone in question is a basic phone, so no apps

If it was a smartphone then whatsapp is what I would use. I don't want to be like a troll, but my questions was skimmed over. The main point was not the out of orderness, but rather the time delay of minutes to hours, vs the seconds it took on verizon.

Here's the issue. No one can really respond. I have had messages truncated before on all carriers. I've also had messages come out of order before on all carriers. We don't all experience the problem you mention you're having on Sprint. So, really, we cannot help you. It is a common and not unique problem to only the Sprint network.

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

[rwzeitgeist]

When I was using sprint, my friend told me that the messages were coming in, but in block form like 160 characters and then another 160 characters. The messages were broken up and also coming in 1 minute, sometimes 5 minute intervals, so and not in order. So it was hard for the recipient to tell the order that the message was supposed to be in.

 

The Short Message Service (SMS) is defined to send a single short message in a single packet.  Coding the characters in 7 bits rather than 8 allows the message to contain 160 characters in a 128 byte packet payload.

 

The SMS packets are not sequenced.  The protocol definition does not require packets be delivered in the same sequence as the messages were sent. If you are familiar with TCP/IP you should think of SMS packets as equilavent to UDP packets, without the ordering guarantee required by TCP.

 

I can readily imagine that given an unordered collection of packets addressed to the same destination the various servers process each packet on any of several threads. Thread scheduling leads to the possibility that the packets, which you think of as sequenced, are processed out of sequence. The more servers a collection of messages passes through the more likely the sequence gets scrambled. Server load is probably the largest variable that results in delivery delays.

 

SMS, like UDP, is a "best effort" service.  You will find no carrier offers even Fortune 50 corporations a delivery time guarantee, or even a guarantee that a message will ever be delivered.  I know of multiple companies using SMS for process control problem alerts ("tank 5 is about to overflow") that want to switch to a different technology because of poor SMS performance where both sender and receiver are in the same state and on the same carrier.

 

Most of the time a collection of related SMS messages happens to arrive both promptly and in the same sequence as they were sent.  However, you cannot assume that the behavior you usually experience is defined as the correct behavior.

 

Bob

[bruce]

Here's the issue. No one can really respond. I have had messages truncated before on all carriers. I've also had messages come out of order before on all carriers. We don't all experience the problem you mention you're having on Sprint. So, really, we cannot help you. It is a common and not unique problem to only the Sprint network.

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

Thank you for your replies.