Euro € Symbol Issue when delivering SMS across carriers

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kadillak

23 posts

Geek

#116355 26-Apr-2013 12:47

In my line of work, we use the Euro currency symbol (€) a lot.
It looks like messages sent on-net between the mobile carriers successfully show the € symbol.
However, delivering messages off-net to other mobile networks converts the € symbol to 'e'.

Is this a fault with the interconnects between the mobile networks?
Or is this just the way it is (an irreparable fault)?

Example One:
Vodafone Mobile sends SMS to Vodafone Mobile:
Message Sent: "Testing € symbol"
Message Received: "Testing € symbol"

Example Two:
Vodafone Mobile sends SMS to Telecom Mobile:
Message Sent: "Testing € symbol"
Message Received: "Testing e symbol"

Example Three:
Telecom Mobile sends SMS to Vodafone Mobile:
Message Sent: "Testing € symbol"
Message Received: "Testing e symbol"

It seems to be an issue no matter what phone I use (android, ios, different android phones, blackberry or symbian).

Has anyone else noticed this issue?

sbiddle

30853 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#805935 26-Apr-2013 14:51

The Euro character was never part of the ETSI GSM spec as it didn't exist at the time. The Euro (along with a handful of others incl { } [ ] are "special" characters one and require 2 7 bit binary characters instead of one 7 bit character for the rest of the alphabet and numbers.

The € issue has been a long standing one using the virtual smsc between networks and has never worked.

kadillak

23 posts

Geek

#830489 4-Jun-2013 13:56

Hi Steve,

Thank you for that. You're bang on the money!

Also found a Wiki article that shows the basic to extended character sets (ie which characters will be replaced): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GSM_03.38

Cheers.