newfangled texting

excuse my density but when someone says "text to...", what exactly does that work out to in the non-cell world? i used to txt friends a lot from my PC (net2sms apps like chikka or bigfoot), but that was built upon their actual phone numbers. that is, it was like emailing to "[number]@smshandler.verizon.com" or "[number]@txtmsg.comcast.net" or the like.

as a first step you needed to ask the human WHICH SYSTEM they were on.

yet lately restaurants radio shows and other businesses routinely give out some 6-digit number w/o any sort of provider name. what does this represent? it's obviously intended as phone-to-phone, but back when i had a cell even that required a normal (10 digit) number.

is there some sort of 4-digit prefix you simply graft onto such numbers?

or a different SET of sites to use, like those net2sms ones above?

TIA!

 

cmon, i know at least one of you has a cellphone!

what does this 6-digit number represent? how do you derive it from your default number?

 

Sorry, I would love to help you out, but where I live we have only 9-digit cell phone numbers for calling and texting.

Possibly this is some special service set up to be used only from cell phones. But if you know somebody with such a 6-digit number, ask them to send an SMS to your computer, and you will probably see the real number behind it.

But most likely this 6-digit number is not an actual cell phone, but a service set up by cell phone providers (and then possibly relayed to a computer mail address).

 

LOL, japan. the only place consistently BEHIND the US in terms of cell technology!! when are we going to get our collective acts together and catch up with places like Serbia and Nigeria?!

:-o

anyway, the term is apparently "common short code". i'm sure EVERYONE on this board knows what they are but you and me. aside from all the SERIOUS applications, i believe it's the way you vote for Idol and other reality shows now....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_code

the texting i refer to is apparently "SMPP" -- as opposed to "SMTP" for the 10-dgit numbers.

http://www.usshortcodes.com/csc_faq_csc.html

that page is US-specific, but you get the idea.

alas, but while making it clear how to access SMTP from email, there's not a PEEP about how to similarly do SMPP! surely i cannot be the ONLY person in the world who wants to send a text from my PC when some radio contest says "text 'budweiser' to 234567; sixth entry wins"?!

heck, they don't even DO the "call in" versions anymore....

anyway, "PC2SMPP" seemed like the logical buzzword here, but strangely googles up empty.

doesn't ANYONE out there know this stuff?! :confused