Media message and fada

cathy01

I was told today that if you send a txt with fada in it or symbol like%#+ it can be counted as a media message?? Anyone else think that's terrible?

GreenWolfe

This is due to the GSM 03.38/3GPP 23.038 specification:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GSM_03.38#GSM_7_bit_default_alphabet_and_extension_table_of_3GPP_TS_23.038_.2F_GSM_03.38

As far as I know - if a message uses a special character, it will use a different encoding instead of the 7-bit basic character set. This particular character set is used for GSM only. Each SMS is limited to 140 octets. So 160 of these basic characters can fit in 140 octets.*

If a special character is inserted into an SMS, like { or ç, the message now uses an different encoding.

If it's part of the basic extended set, it sends 2 7-bit chars: an escape followed by a 7 bit character. 80 characters fit in 140 octets.

If it's any other character, it's encoded in UCS2. A UCS2 character is 16 bits. So, only 70 of these characters can fit into 140 octets.

You could very easily send three messages instead of one -

70
70
20 +
160

*An octet consists of 8 bits - 8 bits was not always a byte.

cathy01

Really they should tell you that .where can I get a list if the symbols so I don't use them. Oh and OMG you know your stuff .

chrislad

cathy01 wrote: »

Really they should tell you that .where can I get a list if the symbols so I don't use them. Oh and OMG you know your stuff .

Ah come on, that's like expecting a car salesman to tell you the internal workings of a combustion engine!

cathy01

chrislad wrote: »

Ah come on, that's like expecting a car salesman to tell you the internal workings of a combustion engine!

Well they told me WHEN I ASKED.
So they know , I think it would be nice if they told you.Thats all

GreenWolfe

cathy01 wrote: »

Really they should tell you that .where can I get a list if the symbols so I don't use them. Oh and OMG you know your stuff .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GSM_03.38#GSM_7_bit_default_alphabet_and_extension_table_of_3GPP_TS_23.038_.2F_GSM_03.38

If you click this link you'll see two tables. The table on the left is the one you're interested in.

chrislad

cathy01 wrote: »

Well they told me WHEN I ASKED.
So they know , I think it would be nice if they told you.Thats all

Caps lock got stuck there.

krudler

cathy01 wrote: »

Well they told me WHEN I ASKED.
So they know , I think it would be nice if they told you.Thats all

you could spend all day in a phone shop if they had to tell you every little do and dont of a phone. Its an issue that rarely crops up