Text messaging delay

[bekisman]

Bit of an old git when it comes to mobiles, but for a couple of days Mrs Beks has been confused; she sent a text (using 02) to a son in Kent (Tesco) took 14 hours to get there. Yesterday received a text from a friend (T mobile) 50 miles away and took four hours to arrive - I can understand the system being overloaded. Someone mentioned it 'could' be the weather? :eek:

[Dadie]

Sometimes its to do with reception...I dont get my txt messages when Im at home as I dont have reception on it...I have to chuck it in my bag and by the time I get to Wick the txt messages usually appear (from up to 3 days ago...)

[Phill]

Probably intercepted at Fylingdales, Echelon project and all that. Just what was the content of yer messages??!!! [para]:eek:[para]

[bekisman]

Probably intercepted at Fylingdales, Echelon project and all that. Just what was the content of yer messages??!!! [para]:eek:[para]I do know (for various reasons) that 'trigger' words are intercepted, but the text was only about the exact time the nuclear transport was leaving Dounreay..

Dadie, thanks but it's not being in a good reception area, got very good here and at 'tother end..

[stekar]

A text I sent my son, both on Tesco network, took about a week to arrive. We are both in Caithness. No idea why it took so long!

[billmoseley]

i had to chuckle when i read this thread. the fact we are moaning a message takes hours to transmit. 20 years ago the only to send a message was by post or if really urgent telegram. hoe far we have come hey?

[bekisman]

I ain't moaning, where did you get that idea from? - just curious as to why it 'floats around', which seems a legitimate question?:roll:

[billmoseley]

ok so you weren't moaning but still made me laugh :eek:

[bekisman]

ok so you weren't moaning but still made me laugh :eek:
Okey Dokey.. just I've never moaned, but it is blinking strange, do these SMS's just keep moving around the ether.. weird

[Phill]

I think it's to do with handshaking and the bandwidth!

Assuming the sending mobile has signal AND has a good connection* to the network your text will be sent from the handset almost immediately.
It then gets transferred via a wired network between computer systems much similar to email etc.
On the receiving network before sending to the recipient it will queue in a 'gateway' whilst the network searches for the recipient handset.

This is where handshaking & bandwidth comes in. As the handset moves around in an area it will be handshaking with the different transmission cells / masts, basically it says hello I'm phone 07*******etc & the mast says hello I'm cell site XXX. The cell site communicates this to the computers controlling the network and they try and make 'communication' work.

*Each cell site will have a certain bandwidth it can use at any one time, or a number of connections it can handle data through. I.e. there may be 1000 phones within range but only 100 can connect at any one time. Also handsets & calls have a priority sequence for connections, most handsets are classed 8 out of a scale of 10 (IIRC) but this is also coupled with the type of call i.e. a 999 call will have a higher priority over other calls.

Additionally there are environmental and geographical factors coming into play like momentary interference, the handset is moved to a signal blackspot for a few seconds.
So even when a handset is showing signal it may not actually be getting a good connection at al times. If this coincides with the moment a text transmission is sent, or during transmission then it will fail, the network will make a number of attempts to send the message before it is returned to the queue for either a period of time or a cycle of messages. This process will happen a number of times possibly with the time between each instance getting longer or until the handset is switched on which sends a different handshake to the network which will start a process of messages being sent / resent.
There are many algorithms and error correction formulas at play in all of this and if any of these fall out of line then this will affect the text transmission.

If you are moving round in a city or moving along a dense travel route (motorway / rail line) your are likely to be switching between cell sites frequently which keeps your connection 'alive' a lot better than left on one cell where the signal & connection my come and go slightly.

[bekisman]

Thanks for the explanation Phill - thought it was something simple like that! :eek: