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Why does including a "fada" cost more than 1 web text?

  • 10-07-2011 9:38pm
    #1
    jayteecork
    Site Banned Posts: 5,676 ✭✭✭


    Kind of annoying don't ya think?

    It's also tilting on meteor's webtext that you don't know if you have gone over the 140 word limit (unless you count) and tehrefore are spending two webtexts!

    /rant.


Comments

  • #2
    Max Power 2010
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 429 ✭✭Max Power 2010


    This is SMS standard and its how it works.

    SMS was developed back maybe in 2000 and hasn't changed, phones have, 1 standard sms across the globe is 160 "characters", including spaces. Same as email but thats more.

    If you put a Fada over a I or A that would be 2 characters regardless there the same place.

    Hope that makes sense!


  • #3
    Odaise Gaelach
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,235 ✭✭✭Odaise Gaelach


    The default SMS alphabet is 128 characters long. Each character is encoded in 7 bits (i.e. it's 7 bits 'long') so you can fit 160 characters in a message.

    Some characters with accents are in this default alphabet; some are not. If you use an 'a fada', the message cannot use the default 7-bit alphabet and instead must use the UTF-16 alphabet, which has a bigger alphabet.

    But because it uses a bigger alphabet it also has to encode each character in 16 bits, to accommodate the extra letters in the alphabet. Each character uses more room in the message, so you can only fit 70 characters in a message.

    Why text messages are limited to 160 characters - latimes.com


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