Non-motoring > Length of text message per unit of charge Miscellaneous
Thread Author: L'escargot Replies: 15
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New Mon 1 Mar 10 08:21 
 Length of text message per unit of charge - L'escargot
I have an Orange "Pay as you go" mobile, mainly for texts and away-from-home emergencies. I noticed today that the length of text message that I get for a one unit charge has reduced dramatically. I can't find any reference to the message length per unit charge in their tariffs or terms and conditions. Any ideas?
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New Mon 1 Mar 10 08:52 
 Length of text message per unit of charge - rtj70
A single SMS text message is 160 characters (or fewer). Phones originally did not let you use more than 160 characters. Phones these days append multiple messages together. Therefore sending say a 163 character message counts as 2 text messages.
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New Mon 1 Mar 10 09:10 
 Length of text message per unit of charge - L'escargot
>> A single SMS text message is 160 characters (or fewer).

My text this morning was only 90 characters including spaces, punctuation marks and symbols, but towards the end it still flagged up that it had gone into a second message. Does the 160 apply to all providers and tariffs?
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New Mon 1 Mar 10 09:13 
 Length of text message per unit of charge - rtj70
160 characters comes from the standard behind SMS on the GSM networks. What phone model is it. All my phones have shown how many characters left in the current 'message'.
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New Mon 1 Mar 10 09:15 
 Length of text message per unit of charge - Focusless
>> 160 characters comes from the standard behind SMS on the GSM networks.

Perhaps it's using unicode SMS?
www.smsmac.com/help/discover/about-sms/unicode/
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New Mon 1 Mar 10 09:18 
 Length of text message per unit of charge - rtj70
I was wondering too if something else could be counted as characters. Unicode takes up more storage space for sure.

I didn't know a phone code use Unicode. Got me wondering about my Nokia e51 now.
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New Mon 1 Mar 10 09:26 
 Length of text message per unit of charge - Zero
he used symbols. It would be unicode if he used symbols.

Now you can ALL see wht txt spk is used.

HA

SO THERE
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New Tue 2 Mar 10 07:53 
 Length of text message per unit of charge - L'escargot
>> What phone model
>> is it. All my phones have shown how many characters left in the current 'message'.

Sony Ericcson Z530i, and it only shows the number of characters left when it gets to 20 left.
I've just done a test consisting of a continuous line of lower case letters and I managed to get 160. It must have had a tantrum yesterday. At least I've learned about the 160 so my original post wasn't entirely fruitless. Thanks everyone.
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New Tue 2 Mar 10 09:47 
 Length of text message per unit of charge - Iffy
I have a cheap Nokia phone on Virgin.

It has a text character countdown '1000/1', which goes down one for every character, suggesting I could send a text of 1,000 characters.

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New Tue 2 Mar 10 10:05 
 Length of text message per unit of charge - rtj70
But for each 160 characters it will send a separate text - the phone at the other end will join them back together. If you're on unlimited texts that okay but 1000 characters likely to be charged as 7 texts.
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New Tue 2 Mar 10 10:05 
 Length of text message per unit of charge - Focusless
>> suggesting I could send a text of 1 000 characters.

go on - try it :-)
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New Tue 2 Mar 10 10:32 
 Length of text message per unit of charge - Iffy
...go on - try it :-)...

Can't be bothered. :)

But if I could be, I expect as rtj70 says I would be charged for several texts.

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New Tue 2 Mar 10 10:52 
 Length of text message per unit of charge - Focusless
>> ...go on - try it :-)...
>>
>> Can't be bothered. :)

Right - well it's not easy with no cut/paste or key repeat, but I can report that on my 6301 when the count gets down to 82/6 (ie. 82 left out of 1000, 6th message (presumably)) typing the next character automatically changes it from a text message to a multimedia message. Clearing that character changes it back again.

I sent the text (82/6) message to myself, and interestingly I got the notification it had arrived before it finished sending it - I guess it issues the alert when it gets the first part. It then displayed 'updating message' as (presumably) the other bits arrived.

Unfortunately I only sent gibberish so couldn't confirm that I received what I sent, although it was at least still gibberish :-)
Last edited by: Focus on Tue 2 Mar 10 at 10:52
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New Tue 2 Mar 10 11:14 
 Length of text message per unit of charge - Iffy
Well, if you can be bothered Focus, so should I - to an extent.

Tapped in a long message.

The countdown goes from 1000/1 to 840/2, suggesting that it does regard 160 characters as one full message.

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New Tue 2 Mar 10 12:40 
 Length of text message per unit of charge - rtj70
I wonder what my Nokia e51 would do... it cannot send MMS because the SIM has no data plan (company SIM card).
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New Tue 2 Mar 10 12:47 
 Length of text message per unit of charge - Focusless
>> I wonder what my Nokia e51 would do...

I found turning off text prediction and pressing alternately on the left/right hand side of the keypad with my thumbs gave the best result :-)
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