| You are on the road, it is a hectic business day and | | | | network, especially if you are roaming in areas |
| you are expecting an important text message, but | | | | serviced by other carriers which may or may not be |
| nothing is coming in. The phone does not vibrate, | | | | roaming partners with your carrier. Turning your |
| beep, whistle, or sing. What's going on? The phone | | | | phone off and on causes the network to register |
| appears to be working. You make a call to a | | | | your phone's location back with your home network. |
| colleague and he tells you he sent the message 40 | | | | Another way you can invoke the SMSC into sending |
| minutes ago. | | | | you any pending messages is to send a text |
| Now you begin to wonder if you are missing any | | | | message to someone. By doing so, the SMSC will |
| other important messages. What can you do? Don't | | | | recognize that your phone is active and will send you |
| panic. Simply, turn your phone off and power it back | | | | any messages you have pending. Most Short |
| on again. All text messages queued for you will be | | | | Message Service Centers have this capability. |
| sent to you immediately if you are in a carrier's | | | | "Shouldn't the network always know where I am?" |
| service area. | | | | Well, yes and no. Your phone signal can be |
| You may ask, "What happened? Why were my | | | | obstructed depending on your physical location and |
| messages not delivered to me sooner?" If you are | | | | your surroundings. Some carrier's systems attempt to |
| traveling, there is a chance you may have gone | | | | deliver pending messages to your phone periodically, |
| through an area that does not have cellular service | | | | but you may be waiting quite a while depending on |
| and when the Short Message Server Center (SMSC) | | | | what the message retry interval is set to. These |
| attempted to deliver the message to you the first | | | | intervals can be minutes, hours, days or not at all. So |
| time it failed. In so doing, your phone was marked as | | | | if you're anxious about your text messages. Power |
| being absent. | | | | off and power on, and you will be receiving all your |
| When you roam back into a service area your phone | | | | text messages pronto. |
| does not automatically re-register with your home | | | | |