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check ticket statusSMS's can be segmented if they are too long or use non-standard characters, messages are charged on a per segment basis and not per message. Customers can be frequently charged for many segments if they use non-standard characters.
For GSM-7: 1 Message to 1 x recipient: 1 - 160 characters
For joined segmented Messages to 1 x recipient:
- 1 – 153 characters = 1 Message
- 154 – 306 characters = 2 Messages
- 307 – 459 characters = 3 Messages
- 460 – 612 characters = 4 Messages
- 613 – 765 characters = 5 Messages
- 766 – 918 characters = 6 Messages - (recommended max character length for a joined message)
For Non-GSM (Unicode): 1 Message to 1 x recipient: 1 - 70 characters
For joined segmented Unicode Messages to 1 x recipient:
- 1 – 67 characters = 1 Message
- 68 – 134 characters = 2 Messages
- 135 – 201 characters = 3 Messages
- 202 – 268 characters = 4 Messages
- 269 – 335 characters = 5 Messages
- 336 – 402 characters = 6 Messages - (recommended max character length for a joined messages)
What is a GSM-7 Character and what is a Unicode Character?
The base character set for GSM-7 can be found at the link below:
To go further on why we segment like this, below is a handy excerpt from the above link:
"In a standard GSM text message, all characters are encoded using 7-bit code units, packed together to fill all bits of octets. So, for example, the 140-octet envelope of an SMS,with no other language indicator but only the standard class prefix, can transport up to (140*8)/7=160, that is 160 GSM 7-bit characters (but note that the ESC code counts for one of them, if characters in the high part of the table are used)."
