The average time for a text message to be delivered to the recipient is about seven seconds. While this is undoubtedly quick, it can still not be considered as real time communication. There are a number of factors that affect the delivery times of SMS notifications, with the main one being the amount of text messages being sent at a particular time. The need for faster delivery times is felt most by business’s that send out bulk SMS messages to their customers. Fortunately, there are a few services that can be utilised by business’s to increase the reliability and delivery times of SMS text messages. But first, it is important to take a look at how SMS works so to better understand the methods utilised to speed up the process.

How SMS Works
Text messages sent via SMS are stored in the SMC (Short Message Centre) which controls the flow of messages into and out of the mobile station. The SMC GWSM is a gateway that communicates with other networks and uses the SS7 network to access information from the Home Location Register (HLR). The message is then transferred to the correct Mobile Switching Centre (MSC) which uses information from the Visitor Location Register (VLR) to finally relay the message to the mobile phone.

Latency
Since SMS uses a signal channel in GSM, the data rate is slow and latency is fairly high. This is because many other services also utilise the signal channels in GSM, which drag the data rate down. In comparison to GPRS and USSD, SMS falls behind with its inherent limitations on data rate, but developments are being made to enhance the service.

Improving Delivery Rate
Improving the delivery times of SMS service depends on the amount of money you are willing to spend on services that allow you to do so. Companies like Silverstreet offer short code services which greatly enhances the speed of SMS. The best way to further improve the reliability and speed of SMS for businesses that send out bulk text messages is to contact aggregators to utilise the high speed binds. This will be particularly useful for large-scale business’s that send out a large amount of notifications in a short period of time.

Overall, SMS is a convenient form of communication short messages to other mobile users. It has distinct advantages over other services as it sends out messages at a quick rate while also keeping costs to a minimum. The use of SMS as a marketing tool has gained popularity over the last few years and as such there is always research being conducted to improve the service. Enhanced Messaging Service (EMS) and Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) are recent developments that aim to offer consumers and business’s more variety in communicating via text messages. MMS also improves the data right and limits the latency by utilising data channels. This is a step in the right direction for SMS, but until further developments in the infrastructure can be made, the best way to improve delivery times is to utilise high level enterprise messaging services offered by companies such as Silverstreet.

The Delivery Times of SMS notifications by ZuhairSiddiqui. The post is written for Silverstreet, a company offering the best virtual SMS solutions.