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why sms is only 160 characters?

C

ChrisGibboGibson

Jan 1, 1970
0
nsa said:
why sms is only 160 characters?

Because if it was 493 characters, "nsa" would ask "why sms is only 493
characters"

Gibbo
 
F

Frithiof Andreas Jensen

Jan 1, 1970
0
nsa said:
why sms is only 160 characters?
Because it is a hack:

Some unknown (to me anyway) engineer got the idea to stick ascii text into
the unused bits of the location update messages that the mobile terminal
exchanges with the basestation - it was probably implemented because the
routing of location updates was already in the network and thus free - and
then the teenagers decided it was cool...

the unused bits just happened to hold 160 Ascii chars.
 
J

Joel Kolstad

Jan 1, 1970
0
Frithiof Andreas Jensen said:
the unused bits just happened to hold 160 Ascii chars.

What encoding is used for non-English languages? I occasionally see web
sites that mention a different number of characters for, e.g., Russian
messages...
 
F

Frithiof Andreas Jensen

Jan 1, 1970
0
What encoding is used for non-English languages?

good question - the answer to which would be in one of the ITU standards
that I used to be bored to tears reading ;-)

There used to be a free, as in gratis, archive of GSM standards on the net
but I have forgotten the link. It can be dredged up, but not before Monday.
 
R

Rick

Jan 1, 1970
0
Frithiof Andreas Jensen said:
good question - the answer to which would be in one of the ITU standards
that I used to be bored to tears reading ;-)

There used to be a free, as in gratis, archive of GSM standards on the net
but I have forgotten the link. It can be dredged up, but not before Monday.


http://www.3gpp.org/specs/specs.htm
 
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