time stamp on SMS messages

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.gsm (More info?)

Graham Cluer wrote:

> When I receive a SMS message it has a date and time attached.
> Is this:
>
> the time set on the sender's phone at the time it was written
> the time set on the sender's phone at the time it was sent
> the network time it was received by the network of the sender
> the network time it was received by my network
> the network time it was delivered to my phone
> the time set on my phone that it was received by my phone?

It's the timestamp from the SMSC (message centre) of lodgement,
giving the date, time, and timezone of lodgement. So it's the
third of your six possibilities. And of course, not all
receiving phones can (or do) correctly compensate for the
timezone component when displaying the message time.

Note that your fourth possibility is ruled out by the fact that
it's the SMSC of lodgement that delivers the message, even
across GSM networks. If the recipient's phone is unavailable
on the first delivery attempt, the recipient's network should
notify the sender's network when that phone reregisters.

John