Comments on: Sending a flash SMS message

By: Naive

Naive — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 14:43:15 +0000

Could you point out how to check sms delivery report using at command.

Thanks
Kumar.

By: Marvin

Marvin — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 15:27:36 +0000

Readers,
I need some help. I have a GSM device Siemens MC35i Terminal and it only sends SMS as Flash. Can anyone give me the AT command to reset it back to a normal SMS that saves on the phone or memory.

Any help appreciated.

By: Jeroen

Jeroen — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 21:50:42 +0000

Franco,

You’re right: there is more than one way to specify a message with a message class. Not sure why they specified it this way though.

Jeroen

By: Franco

Franco — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 03:08:10 +0000

Jeroen:
I had learned that a flash message requires a
DCS = hex->10 which is 00010000
I tried DCS = hex-> F4 which is 11110100
and receive the message as flash too.
According to the specs it should be a flash message
in both cases!.
Why would they have two DCS for same message?
Is there something else involved in this?
Your thoughts will be appreciated!.
regards
Franco

By: Jeroen

Jeroen — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 20:38:05 +0000

Flash SMS messages can be just as long as plain text SMS messages (which is 160 characters when using the GSM-7 alphabet). Flash messages can also be concatenated to create larger messages. Be sure to set the same DCS in all parts of the multi-part SMS message.

Jeroen

By: PS

PS — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 07:40:55 +0000

how long can our message be???

By: Franco

Franco — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 03:06:25 +0000

Jeroen:
Thanks again!.
Sent a flash message with UCS-2
at+cmgs=37…
0001010B91
0585785777F5
0018 (00011000) flash + UCS-2
18
00560069007600610020004600720061006E0063006F0021
It worked perfect!!!.
Regards
Franco

By: Jeroen

Jeroen — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:37:47 +0000

Franco,

The SMS technology is hardly changing. It is one of the oldest and most stable features on GSM networks. All innovations are happening in other areas (SIP, Device Management, SMIL, Audio, Video, Instant Messaging, etc). I you look at the latest specs (Rel 8 of December 2008) and the earlier specs (Rel 3 of 1999), you’ll see that the definition of DCS hasn’t changed. The specs still says that 8-bit data is ‘user defined’. This means (to the manufacturers) use it anyway you like.

So what the Sony Ericsson is doing is perfectly fine, it may even be a ‘de facto’ standard (I really don’t know how many manufacturers do this), but I still see some issues:
- Which character set is used? For ASCII characters this may work fine, but how about characters > 127?
- You can only send 140 characters this way
So it is easier to program, but if that is what you’re looking for, why don’t use text mode? I personally would not rely on this feature, but of course that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t…. I am just trying to make you aware of the implications.

Cheers,
Jeroen

By: Franco

Franco — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:48:27 +0000

Jeroen:
Perhaps the key word is “Standard feature”.
I use the cheapest of all SonyEricsson phones
that can handle wap (w200). It is a US$125.00
phone. Bought it 6 month ago.
Could it be that technology is somehow ahead of standards and that very soon that feature will be a standard.
I think that technology con make obsolete huge amounts of Inventory for this companies and so the standard should somehow wait a little.
Regards
Franco
P.S. Your responses give us information very valuable and feel sure you are aware of this real facts!!!.

By: Jeroen

Jeroen — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:17:05 +0000

The value 14 stands for a flash message with 8 bit data. It seems that your receiving device interprets this as characters in some character-set (most single octet character sets correspond to ASCII for values < 128). This is a great feature of that device, but you can’t rely on all devices behaving this way. This is not a standard feature!