Telstra SMS "Text Buddy" has some bug in the counter + "allow long SMS messages"?

[Ext User(gnh888@gmail.com)]

After being charged extra , I discovered a bug in " Text Buddy
Software" which may explain my overcharge.
see posting
"Telstra SMS text buddy has a secret cost of 24 cents on the top of 25
cents?"

http://groups.google.com/group/aus.comms.mobile/browse_thread/thread/4275bdf4916c015e/cd853533881b85d8?hl=en#cd853533881b85d8

"Text Buddy" Tools > Message Sending > Allow long SMS messages

If " Allow long SMS messages" is ticked the counter shows one number
plus an other one in bracket on a blue or red background.

When " Allow long SMS messages" is ticked, if I write text until the
counter goes to and the counter going to 0(1) with blue background
something strange happen.
By adding one more character to the text message the counter will jump
from
0(1) with blue background to 143(2) on the red background.

Could any one explain why 143(2)? and NOT 159(2) on red background?

What's happening to the 17 characters between 160 and 143?

I am getting charged for an other empy page when the counter is at
0(1)?

Conned by Telstra

[Ext User(gnh888@gmail.com)]

gnh888@gmail.com wrote:
> After being charged extra , I discovered a bug in " Text Buddy
> Software" which may explain my overcharge.
> see posting
> "Telstra SMS text buddy has a secret cost of 24 cents on the top of 25
> cents?"
>
> http://groups.google.com/group/aus.comms.mobile/browse_thread/thread/4275bdf4916c015e/cd853533881b85d8?hl=en#cd853533881b85d8
>
> "Text Buddy" Tools > Message Sending > Allow long SMS messages
>
> If " Allow long SMS messages" is ticked the counter shows one number
> plus an other one in bracket on a blue or red background.
>
> When " Allow long SMS messages" is ticked, if I write text until the
> counter goes to and the counter going to 0(1) with blue background
> something strange happen.

I tested the "text Buddy " counter with a string of 160 characters.
You are welcome to paste it inside "Text Buddy".

12345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890 12345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890 12345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890 1234567890

Just add and delete one character at the time and see how the counter
jumps to more than one character.

George

[Ext User(John Henderson)]

gnh888@gmail.com wrote:

>
> gnh888@gmail.com wrote:
>> After being charged extra , I discovered a bug in " Text
>> Buddy Software" which may explain my overcharge.
>> see posting
>> "Telstra SMS text buddy has a secret cost of 24 cents on the
>> top of 25 cents?"
>>
>>
http://groups.google.com/group/aus.comms.mobile/browse_thread/thread/4275bdf4916c015e/cd853533881b85d8?hl=en#cd853533881b85d8
>>
>> "Text Buddy" Tools > Message Sending > Allow long SMS
>> messages
>>
>> If " Allow long SMS messages" is ticked the counter shows
>> one number plus an other one in bracket on a blue or red
>> background.
>>
>> When " Allow long SMS messages" is ticked, if I write text
>> until the
>> counter goes to and the counter going to 0(1) with blue
>> background something strange happen.
>
> I tested the "text Buddy " counter with a string of 160
> characters. You are welcome to paste it inside "Text Buddy".
>
>
12345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890 12345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890 12345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890 1234567890
>
> Just add and delete one character at the time and see how the
> counter jumps to more than one character.

I'm not familiar with Text Buddy. But there is a limit of 160
characters per SMS message. Does Text Buddy add any text of
its own to your message? If so, that becomes part of the
160-character limit.

Once that limit is reached the message can be split into parts.
When such a split is done, each part can carry only 153
characters because some character positions get taken up by the
cross-referencing information (a "user data header").

If you want to see the technical standard covering this, search
for "GSM 03.40".

John

[Ext User(AJ)]

On 28 Sep 2006 20:03:53 -0700, "gnh888@gmail.com" <gnh888@gmail.com>
wrote:

>After being charged extra , I discovered a bug in " Text Buddy
>Software" which may explain my overcharge.
>see posting
>"Telstra SMS text buddy has a secret cost of 24 cents on the top of 25
>cents?"
>
>http://groups.google.com/group/aus.comms.mobile/browse_thread/thread/4275bdf4916c015e/cd853533881b85d8?hl=en#cd853533881b85d8
>
>"Text Buddy" Tools > Message Sending > Allow long SMS messages
>
>If " Allow long SMS messages" is ticked the counter shows one number
>plus an other one in bracket on a blue or red background.
>
>When " Allow long SMS messages" is ticked, if I write text until the
>counter goes to and the counter going to 0(1) with blue background
>something strange happen.
>By adding one more character to the text message the counter will jump
>from
> 0(1) with blue background to 143(2) on the red background.
>
>Could any one explain why 143(2)? and NOT 159(2) on red background?
>
>What's happening to the 17 characters between 160 and 143?
>
>I am getting charged for an other empy page when the counter is at
>0(1)?
>
>Conned by Telstra

The messages are still sent as seperate 160 character messages. The 17
characters are what links them together and aids the phone in getting
them in the right order at the end. When the phone re-assembles the
messages it doesn't show what is contained in those 17 characters. It
is the same when you send a long message from a handset too and my
Nokia certainly shows the counter drop to take this into account.

[Ext User(John Henderson)]

AJ wrote:

> The messages are still sent as seperate 160 character
> messages. The 17 characters are what links them together and
> aids the phone in getting them in the right order at the end.
> When the phone re-assembles the messages it doesn't show what
> is contained in those 17 characters. It is the same when you
> send a long message from a handset too and my Nokia certainly
> shows the counter drop to take this into account.

Only 7 character positions are used for the concatenated SMS
referencing overhead.

6 octets (48 bits) are required for the user data header itself
of a concatenated SMS.

An additional bit (value zero) is required to take the user data
header to the next septet boundary (7 characters = 7 septets =
49 bits). This is so that an old phone which doesn't
understand SMS concatenation will show uncorrupted text after 7
"rubbish" characters of misinterpreted user data header.

John

[Ext User(gnh888@gmail.com)]

> I tested the "text Buddy " counter with a string of 160 characters.
> You are welcome to paste it inside "Text Buddy".
>
> 12345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890 12345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890 12345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890 1234567890
>
> Just add and delete one character at the time and see how the counter
> jumps to more than one character.
>
> George

On the replies above I can see no one in the answers has tested "text
Buddy" or their Mobile.

Everyone has repeated something about octet and header.
header of what?
If you go that way you forgot the data for the handshaking between the
mobile and the tower.

How do you know if the phone transmit Words or Dwords?
Your are just guessing!
Is the transmission a 8 , 16 or 32 bits transmission?
Size of the packets?

>> The 17 characters are what links them together and
> >aids the phone in getting them in the right order at the end
This is just a myth that some characters are needed to re-arranged the
data at departure & arrival.

Where did you get this information from?
Any URL to back it up?
a very fertile mind.

You have given some explanation but have not produced any data and no
backed up any of yoiur "fertile evidences".

On my email I purposely omitted some strange behavior on the counter
jumping more than one count when adding or subtracting one character
when in page 2 , 3 and 4 etc...

But no one has mentioned going above 2 or 3 or 4 pages of text and
what's happening to the counter.

I can see no one has checked anything.

Just activate the Netmonitor on your mobile phone and learn how your
mobile phone works before given Harry Potter fairy tales stories as
answers
and compare it with "Tesltra Text Buddy"

Ciao bambinos

George

[Ext User(John Henderson)]

gnh888@gmail.com wrote:

> On the replies above I can see no one in the answers has
> tested "text Buddy" or their Mobile.

We're leaving some of the work to you.

> Everyone has repeated something about octet and header.
> header of what?

The header within the User Data field, that's implied by the
Used Data Header Indicator (UDHI) bit being turned on back in
the PDU-type field (GSM 03.40, clause 9.2.2).

> If you go that way you forgot the data for the handshaking
> between the mobile and the tower.

It simply has no relevance.

> How do you know if the phone transmit Words or Dwords?
> Your are just guessing!

I'm not sure what you're asking, and what relevance it might
have.

> Is the transmission a 8 , 16 or 32 bits transmission?
> Size of the packets?

Octets (8 bits). The septets of text from the 7-bit default
alphabet (GSM 03.38, clause 6.2.1) get packed into octets
(clause 6.1.2.1.1) for all store-and-forward purposes.

> This is just a myth that some characters are needed to
> re-arranged the data at departure & arrival.
>
> Where did you get this information from?

GSM 03.40, clause 9.2.3.24 is the primary source.

> Any URL to back it up?
> a very fertile mind.

www.etsi.org or www.3gpp.org - take your pick.

> You have given some explanation but have not produced any data
> and no backed up any of yoiur "fertile evidences".
>
> On my email I purposely omitted some strange behavior on the
> counter jumping more than one count when adding or subtracting
> one character when in page 2 , 3 and 4 etc...
>
> But no one has mentioned going above 2 or 3 or 4 pages of text
> and what's happening to the counter.
>
> I can see no one has checked anything.

No need - the standards don't suddenly change because it's
September 2006.

> Just activate the Netmonitor on your mobile phone and learn
> how your mobile phone works before given Harry Potter fairy
> tales stories as answers and compare it with "Tesltra Text
> Buddy"

Does your use of Netmonitor give you an alternative explanation
for the sudden loss of character-carrying capacity per SMS once
the SMS concatenation mechanism comes into play?

John

[Ext User(Nick Adams)]

gnh888@gmail.com wrote:
>
>> I tested the "text Buddy " counter with a string of 160 characters.
>> You are welcome to paste it inside "Text Buddy".
>>
>> 12345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890 12345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890 12345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890 1234567890
>>
>> Just add and delete one character at the time and see how the counter
>> jumps to more than one character.
>>
>> George
>
> On the replies above I can see no one in the answers has tested "text
> Buddy" or their Mobile.
>
> Everyone has repeated something about octet and header.
> header of what?
> If you go that way you forgot the data for the handshaking between the
> mobile and the tower.
>
> How do you know if the phone transmit Words or Dwords?
> Your are just guessing!
> Is the transmission a 8 , 16 or 32 bits transmission?
> Size of the packets?
>
>>> The 17 characters are what links them together and
>>> aids the phone in getting them in the right order at the end
> This is just a myth that some characters are needed to re-arranged the
> data at departure & arrival.
>
> Where did you get this information from?
> Any URL to back it up?
> a very fertile mind.
>
> You have given some explanation but have not produced any data and no
> backed up any of yoiur "fertile evidences".

Your an idiot.

"Larger content (known as long SMS or concatenated SMS) can be sent
segmented over multiple messages, in which case each message will start
with a user data header (UDH) containing segmentation information. Since
UDH is inside the payload, the number of characters per segment is
lower: 153 for 7-bit encoding, 134 for 8-bit encoding and 67 for 16-bit
encoding."

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

[Ext User(gnh888@gmail.com)]

Nick Adams wrote:
> gnh888@gmail.com wrote:
> >
> >> I tested the "text Buddy " counter with a string of 160 characters.
> >> You are welcome to paste it inside "Text Buddy".
.....
> "Larger content (known as long SMS or concatenated SMS) can be sent
> segmented over multiple messages, in which case each message will start
> with a user data header (UDH) containing segmentation information. Since
> UDH is inside the payload, the number of characters per segment is
> lower: 153 for 7-bit encoding, 134 for 8-bit encoding and 67 for 16-bit
> encoding."
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_message_service

Thanks Nick for your reply and interesting URL]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_message_service (great URL)

The URL mentions 153 which is a jump of 7 characters, but this is NOT
what I am seeing on my counter.

My counter jumps from 0(1) to 143(2) = 17 characters . ( I have NOT
mentioned anything about 153)

Can you or anyone else explain why it jumps 17 characters?

Ciao bambinos

George

[Ext User(John Henderson)]

gnh888@gmail.com wrote:

> The URL mentions 153 which is a jump of 7 characters, but
> this is NOT what I am seeing on my counter.
>
> My counter jumps from 0(1) to 143(2) = 17 characters . ( I
> have NOT mentioned anything about 153)
>
> Can you or anyone else explain why it jumps 17 characters?

As I asked earlier, does Text Buddy add any text of its own to
your message? A small banner perhaps?

John

[Ext User(Frank)]

"John Henderson" <jhenRemoveThis@talk21.com> wrote in message
news:4o688vFd61adU1@individual.net...
> gnh888@gmail.com wrote:
>
>> The URL mentions 153 which is a jump of 7 characters, but
>> this is NOT what I am seeing on my counter.
>>
>> My counter jumps from 0(1) to 143(2) = 17 characters . ( I
>> have NOT mentioned anything about 153)
>>
>> Can you or anyone else explain why it jumps 17 characters?
>
> As I asked earlier, does Text Buddy add any text of its own to
> your message? A small banner perhaps?
>
> John

I've just sent a 160 character message and 160 characters were received as
one message. There was no banner. If you go over 160 characters and you
enter the 161st character it tells you that you have 143 characters left.

[Ext User(John Henderson)]

Frank wrote:

> I've just sent a 160 character message and 160 characters were
> received as one message. There was no banner. If you go over
> 160 characters and you enter the 161st character it tells you
> that you have 143 characters left.

OK, once the 161st character was typed I'd expect there there to
be 145 characters left in part 2 of 2.

This is because part 1 of 2 contains 153 characters (it was 160
immediately before this, when it was part 1 of 1). The last 7
of the first 160 characters now become the first 7 of part 2.
The 161st character becomes the 8th character of part 2,
leaving (153 x 2) - 161 characters before part 2 fills.

Note that 8-bit numbering is generally used for concatenated
messages. If Telstra was using 16-bit numbering, only 151
7-bit characters are posible in each part, and I'd then expect
the remaining count to drop to 141 instead of to 145.

At the moment, I can't explain a drop to 143 on the 161st
character.

John

[Ext User(Frank)]

"John Henderson" <jhenRemoveThis@talk21.com> wrote in message
news:4o6amnFd4f7rU1@individual.net...
> Frank wrote:
>
>> I've just sent a 160 character message and 160 characters were
>> received as one message. There was no banner. If you go over
>> 160 characters and you enter the 161st character it tells you
>> that you have 143 characters left.
>
> OK, once the 161st character was typed I'd expect there there to
> be 145 characters left in part 2 of 2.
>
> This is because part 1 of 2 contains 153 characters (it was 160
> immediately before this, when it was part 1 of 1). The last 7
> of the first 160 characters now become the first 7 of part 2.
> The 161st character becomes the 8th character of part 2,
> leaving (153 x 2) - 161 characters before part 2 fills.
>
> Note that 8-bit numbering is generally used for concatenated
> messages. If Telstra was using 16-bit numbering, only 151
> 7-bit characters are posible in each part, and I'd then expect
> the remaining count to drop to 141 instead of to 145.
>
> At the moment, I can't explain a drop to 143 on the 161st
> character.
>
> John

The 1st character of the 3rd part shows 151 characters remaining , if that
helps.

[Ext User(John Henderson)]

Frank wrote:

> The 1st character of the 3rd part shows 151 characters
> remaining , if that helps.

I'll give it some thought, but all the concatenated messages
forming the one larger message must be either 8-bit or 16-bit
numbering. That can't be changed mid-stream.

There are various complications possible, like including
characters from the GSM 03.38 extension table, each of which
requires 2 character positions. SMS software I've written
handles these correctly, but there's other evidence that
Telstra doesn't.

John

[Ext User(gnh888@gmail.com)]

John Henderson wrote:
> Frank wrote:
>
> > The 1st character of the 3rd part shows 151 characters
> > remaining , if that helps.
>
> I'll give it some thought, but all the concatenated messages
> forming the one larger message must be either 8-bit or 16-bit
> numbering. That can't be changed mid-stream.
>
> There are various complications possible, like including
> characters from the GSM 03.38 extension table, each of which
> requires 2 character positions. SMS software I've written
> handles these correctly, but there's other evidence that
> Telstra doesn't.
>
> John

John

Telsttra is NOT the first carrier in Australia or in the world to
allow people to send SMS from their PC.
A freind of mine has VODAFONE PC and the price is Free or 25 cents
depending if the othe rmobile is on VODAFONE or NOT.

a few website of interest:


WEB2TXT from vodafone
http://www.vodafone.com.au/foryou/services/txt_services/web2txt.jsp?gs=foryou&hd=services&st=txt_services&ss=web2txt

http://www.geekzone.co.nz/content.asp?contentid=1021

http://business.three.com.au/index.cfm?pageid=3470&parentid=3241

http://www.traitel.com.au/sms.html

Why would the transmission protocol between carriers be different?
It make no sens.

As I say, there is a BUG in Telstra "Text Buddy".

George

[Ext User(John Henderson)]

gnh888@gmail.com wrote:

> Telsttra is NOT the first carrier in Australia or in the
> world to allow people to send SMS from their PC.
> A freind of mine has VODAFONE PC and the price is Free or 25
> cents depending if the othe rmobile is on VODAFONE or NOT.
>
> a few website of interest:
>
>
> WEB2TXT from vodafone
>
http://www.vodafone.com.au/foryou/services/txt_services/web2txt.jsp?gs=foryou&hd=services&st=txt_services&ss=web2txt
>
> http://www.geekzone.co.nz/content.asp?contentid=1021
>
>
http://business.three.com.au/index.cfm?pageid=3470&parentid=3241
>
> http://www.traitel.com.au/sms.html

I can send SMSs from my PC through a GSM device attached via a
cable, using software I designed and wrote myself.

I've written my software in PDU-mode, so it needs to encode
every single bit of each octet (byte) of each message (and/or
message part, including the numbering of any parts within the
UDH). Protocol Data Units (PDUs) are the raw data which gets
sent across the air between phone and network.

> Why would the transmission protocol between carriers be
> different? It make no sens.

Who said the protocol was different? I simply said the Telstra
has known issues ("bugs" if you like) with the handling of
characters from the extension table for the standard 7-bit GSM
default alphabet (the characters requiring 2 character
positions). Try sending an SMS with the Euro currency symbol
or any of the characters

| ^ { } [ ] ~ \

through a Telstra SMSC (message centre) and see what's received.
Now lodge it through a Vodafone or Optus SMSC to see how it
should work. The carrier of the phone it's sent to doesn't
matter - only the SMSC of lodgement.

> As I say, there is a BUG in Telstra "Text Buddy".

It wouldn't suprise me if there was (after all, I didn't write
it).

If I've understood the descriptions by yourself and Frank, and
assuming none of the above special characters get used, I'd
expect the remaining character counter to start at 160, drop to
0 as 160 characters get typed, then change to 145 at the next
character, progress down to 0 again and then go to 152 at the
beginning of the third part. The basic logic behind this
expectation has already been explained.

If Telstra wanted to be rather clever, they could insert a
<carriage return> as the first character of the first part once
the splitting of the message into parts becomes necessary.
This is an optional trick to hide the UDH within the first
message part only, and is only useful for old receiving phones
which don't understand SMS concatenation. It hides the 7
"garbage" UDH characters by restarting the display of the
actual text at the very beginning of the line. But then the
remaining count would drop to 144 at the first character of the
second part, and to 151 at the first character of the third
part. I have no confidence at all that that's what Telstra is
doing, and it doesn't tally with your observed change from 0
remaining to 143 with a single extra character.

A <carriage return> at the beginning of the second or any
subsequent part would only serve to obliterate legitimate text
within the reconstructed message. It's something for part 1
only.

So apart from a fairly trivial question of where one or two
character positions have gone, I don't see evidence of a bug in
"Text Buddy".

John

[Ext User(John Henderson)]

gnh888@gmail.com wrote:

> Why would the transmission protocol between carriers be
> different? It make no sens.

If youre thinking that some other GSM or 3GSM (UMTS) carrier
might handle large messages differently, you're going to be
disappointed. GSM 03.40, and its 3G replacement 3GPP 23.040,
both prescribe the mechanism I've outlined for all equipment
makers.

John

[Ext User(gnh888@gmail.com)]

John Henderson wrote:
> gnh888@gmail.com wrote:
>
> > Why would the transmission protocol between carriers be
> > different? It make no sens.
>
> If youre thinking that some other GSM or 3GSM (UMTS) carrier
> might handle large messages differently, you're going to be
> disappointed. GSM 03.40, and its 3G replacement 3GPP 23.040,
> both prescribe the mechanism I've outlined for all equipment
> makers.
>
> John

BEWARE OF TELSTRA "TEXT BUDDY" when you use long messages above 152
characters....

John I've found the answer and there is a BUG in Telstra "Text Buddy"
alright since the 19 September 2006 and before.

Here the Telstra document
http://www.telstra.com.au/customerterms/docs/sms.pdf

Here is the paragraph and specially the fact of passing the 152
characters when ticking the options box as long messages.

Here it is plain in front of your eyes.
--9.19 If you set up Telstra Online Text Buddy to only send SMS with up
to 160 characters, you
will be charged the standard SMS rate under your mobile plan for each
SMS of up to 160
characters you send using Telstra Online Text Buddy.
----9.20 If you set up Telstra Online Text Buddy so you can send SMS
with more than 160
characters, because of technological requirements, each SMS you send
will be measured
in blocks of 152 characters. Each block of 152 characters or less will
be charged as a
single SMS according to the standard SMS rate under your mobile plan.
If you choose
this option, we will tell you the number of SMS you are sending before
you send the
SMS.
If you have chosen this option so you can send SMS with more than 160
characters, sending a
message with 152 characters or less will be charged as 1 SMS. Sending a
message with between 153
and 304 characters will be charged as 2 SMS. Sending a message with
between 305 and 455
characters will be charged as 3 SMS.
----9.21 You must pay all charges for SMS sent (even if the charges are
incurred by another person
with access to your Telstra Online Text Buddy service). Unless the SMS
sent using
Telstra Online Text Buddy is a Talking Text message and the Talking
Text terms state......

As you can see NOTHING on Telstra "Text Buddy" reflects this at all.
There is NO warning anywhere.

Very dishonest from Telstra "text Buddy" and Telstra Text Buddy
website....
not to warn the customers.

George

[Ext User(John Henderson)]

gnh888@gmail.com wrote:

> If you set up Telstra Online Text Buddy so you can send SMS
> with more than 160 characters, because of technological
> requirements, each SMS you send will be measured in blocks of
> 152 characters. Each block of 152 characters or less will be
> charged as a single SMS according to the standard SMS rate
> under your mobile plan. If you choose this option, we will
> tell you the number of SMS you are sending before you send the
> SMS.
> If you have chosen this option so you can send SMS with more
> than 160 characters, sending a message with 152 characters or
> less will be charged as 1 SMS.

George, that last sentence you've quoted from Telstra is either
inacurate, or very sloppy program design/implementation on
Telstra's part. Even if you've ticked the ability to send long
messages, there's no reason to charge for 2 SMSs if you want to
send 160 characters or less.

> Sending a message with between 153 and 304 characters will be
> charged as 2 SMS. Sending a message with between 305 and 455
> characters will be charged as 3 SMS.

I'd expect that to say 161 to 306 (inclusive) characters require
2 SMSs, and 307 to 459 require 3.

In filling out the UDH from 48 bits to the next septet boundary
(as required by GSM 03.40), let's say that Telstra have padded
it with 8 extra bits instead of the 1 extra that's actually
required (taking 56 bits total for the UDH instead of 49).
Then there are only 152 characters in each part of a
concatenated message, and Telstra's figures fall into place.

From a technical point of view, I can see why Telstra might have
done this though. Given the character packing algorithm in GSM
03.38, clause 6.1.2.1.1, it's much _easier_ to pack from a
point where the septet and octet boundaries coincide (at 56
bits is one such place), than it is to pack from 49 bits where
they don't. And that shows laziness as the underlying reason
for the sloppiness.

....

> As you can see NOTHING on Telstra "Text Buddy" reflects this
> at all. There is NO warning anywhere.
>
> Very dishonest from Telstra "text Buddy" and Telstra Text
> Buddy website....
> not to warn the customers.

No warning that long messages will incur multiple SMS charges
you mean? That's par for the course, as most phones these days
let you compose and send long SMSs without any clear indication
that you'll be charged for multiple SMSs.

John

[Ext User(Frank)]

"John Henderson" <jhenRemoveThis@talk21.com> wrote in message
news:4oj6rlFejg2tU1@individual.net...
> gnh888@gmail.com wrote:
>
>> If you set up Telstra Online Text Buddy so you can send SMS
>> with more than 160 characters, because of technological
>> requirements, each SMS you send will be measured in blocks of
>> 152 characters. Each block of 152 characters or less will be
>> charged as a single SMS according to the standard SMS rate
>> under your mobile plan. If you choose this option, we will
>> tell you the number of SMS you are sending before you send the
>> SMS.
>> If you have chosen this option so you can send SMS with more
>> than 160 characters, sending a message with 152 characters or
>> less will be charged as 1 SMS.
>
> George, that last sentence you've quoted from Telstra is either
> inacurate, or very sloppy program design/implementation on
> Telstra's part. Even if you've ticked the ability to send long
> messages, there's no reason to charge for 2 SMSs if you want to
> send 160 characters or less.
>
>> Sending a message with between 153 and 304 characters will be
>> charged as 2 SMS. Sending a message with between 305 and 455
>> characters will be charged as 3 SMS.
>
> I'd expect that to say 161 to 306 (inclusive) characters require
> 2 SMSs, and 307 to 459 require 3.
>
> In filling out the UDH from 48 bits to the next septet boundary
> (as required by GSM 03.40), let's say that Telstra have padded
> it with 8 extra bits instead of the 1 extra that's actually
> required (taking 56 bits total for the UDH instead of 49).
> Then there are only 152 characters in each part of a
> concatenated message, and Telstra's figures fall into place.
>
> From a technical point of view, I can see why Telstra might have
> done this though. Given the character packing algorithm in GSM
> 03.38, clause 6.1.2.1.1, it's much _easier_ to pack from a
> point where the septet and octet boundaries coincide (at 56
> bits is one such place), than it is to pack from 49 bits where
> they don't. And that shows laziness as the underlying reason
> for the sloppiness.
>
> ...
>
>> As you can see NOTHING on Telstra "Text Buddy" reflects this
>> at all. There is NO warning anywhere.
>>
>> Very dishonest from Telstra "text Buddy" and Telstra Text
>> Buddy website....
>> not to warn the customers.
>
> No warning that long messages will incur multiple SMS charges
> you mean? That's par for the course, as most phones these days
> let you compose and send long SMSs without any clear indication
> that you'll be charged for multiple SMSs.
>
> John

If you are going to send a message exceeding 160 characters then Text Buddy
will pop up a box warning of the extra charge and you are given the choice
to continue or cancel the message. " The text of the message exceeds the
lenghth of a single SMS message.You will be charged for 2 messages to each
recipient in the address list. Do you want to send the message anyway....YES
NO"

Frank