CELLULAR TELEPHONE NETWORK HAVING SHORT MESSAGE SERVICE INTERACTION WITH OTHER NETWORKS

摘要

A method and apparatus is disclosed for facilitating inter-network message communications within the framework of a cellular telecommunications network. The message center (22) of the cellular network (10) includes functionality for processing received messages and forwarding the received messages between the cellular network and other connected networks (20). Each message handled by the message center includes a destination identifier (40) in the text field (36) of the message which identifies not only the delivery destination (addressee) for the message (44), but also the network over which the messag e is to be transmitted in order to reach the identified delivery destination (42). In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the message center functionality facilitates inter-network communications among and between a cellular network (10) (using SMS message format transmissions), a conventional telephone network (using facsimile message format transmissions) (20(1)), and a wide or local area network (usi ng e-mail message format transmissions) (20(2) or 20(3)).