Character Encoding

As per ETSI specification documents GSM 03.38 and 03.40, text messages can be:

160 characters long where each character is 7-bits
The 7-bit default alphabet is defined in ETSI specification document GSM 03.38 and includes all English alphabets, numerals, punctuations and some symbols (see table below). Please note that certain characters (e.g. ^{}[]\~ ) are 14-bits long and therefore are equivalent to two characters when used in text messages with 7-bit encoding. When sending text messages using mCore™ with 7-bit encoding (i.e. Character property is set to value 0), you must ensure that the characters used in the message are restricted to the default character set or else they will be replaced by the '?' (question mark) symbol.
140 characters long where each character is 8-bit long
Many old model phones are unable to display messages encoded in 8-bit and therefore this type of encoding is generally used only for data (e.g. smart messaging, OTA provisions of WAP settings etc).
70 characters long where wach character is 16-bit Unicode (UCS2)
This type of encoding is used for non-english international language text messaging. The ability to display the message correctly depends on the extent of capability that the recipient's mobile phone has for displaying Unicode (UCS2) characters.

Note: The maximum size of each message is also dependent on following factors:

If you select Concatenation (LongMessage property set to value 3) then the maximum length of each part message is restricted to 152 characters (7-bit encoding), 134 characters (8-bit encoding) and 67 characters (16-bit encoding) per part message.
If you select Formatted Split (LongMessage property set to value 2) then the maximum length of each part message is restricted to 148 characters (7-bit encoding), 128 characters (8-bit encoding) and 58 characters (16-bit encoding) per part message. This is to include the pagination information for each message. However, if the message text fits in to one single message then the pagination information is not included and the message length can be up to its full normal length.
For Trial version of mCore™ the maximum permissible length of each message is reduced to accommodate the advertising signature.

7-Bit Default Alphabet Table:

GSM 7-Bit Decimal	Character Name	Character	ISO-8859-1 Decimal
0	COMMERCIAL AT	@	64
1	POUND SIGN	£	163
2	DOLLAR SIGN	$	36
3	YEN SIGN	¥	165
4	LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH GRAVE	è	232
5	LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH ACUTE	é	233
6	LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH GRAVE	ù	249
7	LATIN SMALL LETTER I WITH GRAVE	ì	236
8	LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH GRAVE	ò	242
9	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER C WITH CEDILLA	Ç	199
10	LINE FEED		10
11	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O WITH STROKE	Ø	216
12	LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH STROKE	ø	248
13	CARRIAGE RETURN		13
14	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A WITH RING ABOVE	Å	197
15	LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH RING ABOVE	å	229
16	GREEK CAPITAL LETTER DELTA	Δ	916
17	LOW LINE	_	95
18	GREEK CAPITAL LETTER PHI	Φ	934
19	GREEK CAPITAL LETTER GAMMA	Γ	915
20	GREEK CAPITAL LETTER LAMBDA	Λ	923
21	GREEK CAPITAL LETTER OMEGA	Ω	937
22	GREEK CAPITAL LETTER PI	Π	928
23	GREEK CAPITAL LETTER PSI	Ψ	936
24	GREEK CAPITAL LETTER SIGMA	Σ	931
25	GREEK CAPITAL LETTER THETA	Θ	920
26	GREEK CAPITAL LETTER XI	Ξ	926
27	ESCAPE TO EXTENSION TABLE
27 10	FORM FEED		12
27 20	CIRCUMFLEX ACCENT	^	94
27 40	LEFT CURLY BRACKET	{	123
27 41	RIGHT CURLY BRACKET	}	125
27 47	REVERSE SOLIDUS (BACKSLASH)	\	92
27 60	LEFT SQUARE BRACKET	[	91
27 61	TILDE	~	126
27 62	RIGHT SQUARE BRACKET	]	93
27 64	VERTICAL BAR	\|	124
27 101	EURO SIGN	€	164 (ISO-8859-15) 8364 (ANSI)
28	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER AE	Æ	198
29	LATIN SMALL LETTER AE	æ	230
30	LATIN SMALL LETTER SHARP S (German)	ß	223
31	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER E WITH ACUTE	É	201
32	SPACE		32
33	EXCLAMATION MARK	!	33
34	QUOTATION MARK	"	34
35	NUMBER SIGN	#	35
36	CURRENCY SIGN	¤	164 (ISO-8859-1)
37	PERCENT SIGN	%	37
38	AMPERSAND	&	38
39	APOSTROPHE	'	39
40	LEFT PARENTHESIS	(	40
41	RIGHT PARENTHESIS	)	41
42	ASTERISK	*	42
43	PLUS SIGN	+	43
44	COMMA	,	44
45	HYPHEN-MINUS	-	45
46	FULL STOP	.	46
47	SOLIDUS (SLASH)	/	47
48	DIGIT ZERO	0	48
49	DIGIT ONE	1	49
50	DIGIT TWO	2	50
51	DIGIT THREE	3	51
52	DIGIT FOUR	4	52
53	DIGIT FIVE	5	53
54	DIGIT SIX	6	54
55	DIGIT SEVEN	7	55
56	DIGIT EIGHT	8	56
57	DIGIT NINE	9	57
58	COLON	:	58
59	SEMICOLON	;	59
60	LESS-THAN SIGN	<	60
61	EQUALS SIGN	=	61
62	GREATER-THAN SIGN	>	62
63	QUESTION MARK	?	63
64	INVERTED EXCLAMATION MARK	¡	161
65	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A	A	65
66	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER B	B	66
67	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER C	C	67
68	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER D	D	68
69	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER E	E	69
70	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER F	F	70
71	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER G	G	71
72	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER H	H	72
73	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER I	I	73
74	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER J	J	74
75	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER K	K	75
76	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER L	L	76
77	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER M	M	77
78	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER N	N	78
79	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O	O	79
80	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER P	P	80
81	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Q	Q	81
82	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER R	R	82
83	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER S	S	83
84	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER T	T	84
85	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER U	U	85
86	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER V	V	86
87	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER W	W	87
88	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER X	X	88
89	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Y	Y	89
90	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Z	Z	90
91	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A WITH DIAERESIS	Ä	196
92	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O WITH DIAERESIS	Ö	214
93	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER N WITH TILDE	Ñ	209
94	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER U WITH DIAERESIS	Ü	220
95	SECTION SIGN	§	167
96	INVERTED QUESTION MARK	¿	191
97	LATIN SMALL LETTER A	a	97
98	LATIN SMALL LETTER B	b	98
99	LATIN SMALL LETTER C	c	99
100	LATIN SMALL LETTER D	d	100
101	LATIN SMALL LETTER E	e	101
102	LATIN SMALL LETTER F	f	102
103	LATIN SMALL LETTER G	g	103
104	LATIN SMALL LETTER H	h	104
105	LATIN SMALL LETTER I	i	105
106	LATIN SMALL LETTER J	j	106
107	LATIN SMALL LETTER K	k	107
108	LATIN SMALL LETTER L	l	108
109	LATIN SMALL LETTER M	m	109
110	LATIN SMALL LETTER N	n	110
111	LATIN SMALL LETTER O	o	111
112	LATIN SMALL LETTER P	p	112
113	LATIN SMALL LETTER Q	q	113
114	LATIN SMALL LETTER R	r	114
115	LATIN SMALL LETTER S	s	115
116	LATIN SMALL LETTER T	t	116
117	LATIN SMALL LETTER U	u	117
118	LATIN SMALL LETTER V	v	118
119	LATIN SMALL LETTER W	w	119
120	LATIN SMALL LETTER X	x	120
121	LATIN SMALL LETTER Y	y	121
122	LATIN SMALL LETTER Z	z	122
123	LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH DIAERESIS	ä	228
124	LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH DIAERESIS	ö	246
125	LATIN SMALL LETTER N WITH TILDE	ñ	241
126	LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH DIAERESIS	ü	252
127	LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH GRAVE	à	224