Cellphone messaging formats - technical question

Factual Questions
1

I use SMS messaging to my friends cell phone all of the time either by going to WirelessCarrierA’s website, or using their pre-made email address (5551212121@mobile.wirelesscarriera.net). However, I just noticed at http://www.gozing.com that they have a ‘universal’ messenger. Somehow it can send a message without knowing the wireless carrier. Is this done through a database of area codes and prefixes, or is there some easier way to send SMS messages?

P.S. Gozing.com’s main service, of sending you advertising in exchange for Points To Be Redeemed Later, sucks. I’m purely interested in their little sidebar.

2

the best way to sms someone from the 'net is using icq’s sms option. http://www.icq.com , it’s simple, neat, free, and it works. also gives you a sent message confirmation.

basically, the website you mention can figure out the carrier’s name from the number you supply, or the carrier prefix if you supply the carrier’s name.

it’s like how we make out that +1-800-xxxx-xxxx must be in the US, and +44-whatever must be U.K. , similarly you can figure out cellular phone carriers from their numbers.

3

Are you sure? I tried it with this UK number:
044-0777-373-XXXX [editted of course] It says incorrect format.

same for 44-0777-373-XXXX

whats the London format?

4

try removing the 0 before 777. try to sms +44777373XXXX. That 0 ( preceding the 777 ) is meant for people from within the U.K. to call from one city to another.

5

[aside] handy, holy cow ! 9330 posts fer cryin’ out loud! i don’t think even some of the mods have that many. what do you do for a living, gawsh, just reading this board alone wastes enough of my day :slight_smile: not that i’m complaining :)[/aside]

6

[aside] handy’s post count is, indeed, aknowledged as being the highest on the board, although I think that David B and Coldfire, both mods, hold second and third. It’s only been in the past couple of months, though, that Eutychus55 and Lynn Bodoni hit four digits, and they’ve been here since the Olden Days, so not all mods have high counts.

7

UK mobile numbers aren’t related to geography (the 07xxx codes are nationwide). xash is right, though – drop the leading zero and you should be fine.

8

I forgot. Lycos UK run a rather useful free SMS service for UK mobiles.

9

xash, nothing special, I type fast, read fast & know how to message when the board is slow.

44-777-373-XXXX still gives incorrect format at gozing.com Are you sure you can message someone from the US who is in the UK?

10

handy, ok i checked the number +44777373XXXX replacing XXXX with a random 4 digit no., sent a “random testing, please ignore” message and got a sent confirmation. so the format is indeed correct. i used icq’s sms sending option. get icq from http://www.icq.com . so it will work for you, messaging from the US to the UK.

if there’s one thing that i spend more time on on the net, besides straigh dope, it’s icq :slight_smile:

if you prefer a web based option, try http://www.mtnsms.com or http://www.airbornww.com

11

xash, I tried it with that format at gozing (+44777373XXXX)
but it doesn’t like it. Let me try those other sites.