Maximum Characters or Max Chars determines the number or characters or length of the message.

In the PageGate Admin module under each Recipient and Carrier settings the maximum character default is 240. Maximum characters can be set up to 2000 characters. The actual carriers set their own maximum characters or message length for each message accepted. Common message lengths that carriers accept are from 120 to 300.

A message with a character count in excess of the Carrier Max Chars setting will be split into an individual number of messages until the entire length of original message has been completely sent. In addition, with a character count in excess of what the actual carrier accepts a text message will send out individual, sequential or concatenate numbered messages (i.e. 1 of 3, 2 of 3, 3 of 3) until the entire message is sent. See Reliapage.

If a recipient's character limit is set larger than the carrier's character limit, the message will be automatically broken into smaller messages and sequentially numbered (i.e. 1 of 3, 2 of 3, 3 of 3). The numbering of messages is important because, although PageGate sends the messages in the correct order to the wireless carrier, the messages may not be received by the wireless device in the same order. This is possible due to the way the wireless network or system works.

To avoid sending truncated messages set the carrier character's length higher than the recipient character's length.