[neilep (OP)]

 []

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[Karen W.]

I do know what you mean....I have had that happen at times....   

[DoctorBeaver]

The pigeon gets lost.

[neilep (OP)]

Yes, yes, lost pigeons indeed !  []



well, this lot are certainly delivering some sort of message in a very direct way !


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[techmind]

Occasionally -such as on New Year's eve- we are told that the network is just congested, resulting in delays.

Another cause is if the recipient's phone cannot take the message for some reason, perhaps due to being out-of-signal (or if the inbox is full). I understand that in such cases the network attempts a second delivery a minute or so later, then several miniutes later, with ever-increasing time gaps. If the phone has been lacking signal for a while, it can then take a while longer before the network makes its next attempt.
(I have heard this second-hand, and while it makes sense - it's not original).

You could test it by having a phone with a full inbox, sending it one more message, then noting each time it tries to receive the message (and fails) - although conceivably the network might use a different resend algorithm in this case compared to a lack of signal...?

[Carolyn]

Yes, yes, lost pigeons indeed !  []



well, this lot are certainly delivering some sort of message in a very direct way !


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OMG!!! 

How horrible! 

This is exactly why I'm so terrified of birds!

[rosalind dna]

When ever I send a text message and not necessarily around Christmas hols, they do take ages. It's a ********* pain and
if it was an urgent one then it could be a disaster. IMO.

But the amount of cyber space bytes (I think) might be a cause for the slowness in delivery. Not where we all live.

[neilep (OP)]

Thank Ewe all for your kind responses. Thank ewe too Techmind for the detail too.

Can someone explain the actual route a text message takes ?..and what happens to it if the recipients phone is switched off ?

[yor_on]

"The Short Message Service - Point to Point (SMS-PP) is defined in GSM recommendation 03.40.[2] GSM 03.41 defines the Short Message Service - Cell Broadcast (SMS-CB) which allows messages (advertising, public information, etc.) to be broadcast to all mobile users in a specified geographical area.[16] Messages are sent to a Short Message Service Centre (SMSC) which provides a store-and-forward mechanism. It attempts to send messages to their recipients. If a recipient is not reachable, the SMSC queues the message for later retry.[17] Some SMSCs also provide a "forward and forget" option where transmission is tried only once. Both Mobile Terminated (MT), for messages sent to a mobile handset, and Mobile Originating (MO), for those that are sent from the mobile handset, operations are supported. Message delivery is best effort, so there are no guarantees that a message will actually be delivered to its recipient and delay or complete loss of a message is not uncommon, particularly when sending between networks. Users may choose to request delivery reports (simply add *0# or *N# to the beginning of your text message), which can provide positive confirmation that the message has reached the intended recipient."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_message_service

[smsala]

I have an Android phone. Several months ago, I ordered a product from a company, and when the product shipped, they sent me a text. I read it and then deleted it as usual, but then I received the same text message again, and again, and again. I contacted the company and asked them to stop sending me the old message, but they said they only sent it once, and never again. It's become apparent that my phone is sending me that same message over and over again, like a broken record, as if the message somehow got stuck in the MMS system. Every time I delete it, a while later I receive it again. Is this a virus, that is causing this? It's never happened with any other message, just this one. Can this be fixed somehow?
<<<*.com COMMERCIAL LINK REMOVED >>>

[Colin2B]

I have an Android phone. Several months ago, I ordered a product from a company, and when the product shipped, they sent me a text. I read it and then deleted it as usual, but then I received the same text message again, and again, and again. I contacted the company and asked them to stop sending me the old message, but they said they only sent it once, and never again. It's become apparent that my phone is sending me that same message over and over again, like a broken record, as if the message somehow got stuck in the MMS system. Every time I delete it, a while later I receive it again. Is this a virus, that is causing this? It's never happened with any other message, just this one. Can this be fixed somehow?
<<<*.com COMMERCIAL LINK REMOVED >>>

Weak attempt to spam us.
You web and signature have been changed to ours and you are banned.
PS We won’t send a confirmatory text.

[Jesusbaker]

Due to some technical issues that arise.

[David Cooper]

It is an appalling service, not only failing to get messages to you promptly when your phone's on, but also allowing lots of messages to go missing altogether. There should be a law to make sure that no message can be deleted from the system without being delivered to the target, and the simplest way to ensure that would be to make sure that they're all sent to an email address as well as to the phone (if the phone's on - if the phone's off for a month, then fair enough to fail to deliver it to the phone after that if it's already been sent on in an email).

The law also needs to tighten up on the six month cut-off rule for sim cards - a relative of mine gets ill from time to time and can end up being in hospital for long lengths of time, invariably having to buy a new sim card after being released and losing a lot of money that was stored on the phone. It is repeated theft from the most vulnerable people in society.