The transmission of short text-messages to and from a mobile phone, fax machine and/or IP address. Messages must be no longer than 160 alphanumeric characters and contain no images or graphics. Once a message is sent, it is received by a Short Message Service Center (SMSC), which must then get it to the appropriate mobile device. To do this, the SMSC sends a SMS Request to the home location register (HLR) to find the roaming customer. Once the HLR receives the request, it will respond to the SMSC with the subscriber’s metadata: 1) inactive or active 2) where subscriber is roaming. If the response is ‘inactive’ then the SMSC will hold onto the message for a period of time. When the subscriber accesses the device the HLR sends a SMS notification to the SMSC, and the SMSC will attempt delivery. The SMSC transfers the message in a Short Message Delivery Point-to- Point format to the serving system. The system pages the device, and if it responds, the message gets delivered and receives verification.

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