Patent ID: 7941557

Claim:
A method for determining a route to send a message over an electronic network, comprising: receiving a message that identifies a destination identifier, wherein a body of the message is limited to a predefined size, and wherein the message is a mobile phone message; determining one of a plurality of separate carriers to which to route the message based on the destination identifier, if the destination identifier further indicates a local carrier that currently provides messaging services to a destination device associated with the destination identifier; accessing predefined carrier routing information that indicates availability of each of a plurality of channels that correspond to the one determined carrier of the plurality of other separate carriers; accessing destination user information that is associated with the destination identifier and a destination user, wherein the destination user information indicates availability of the destination user to receive messages, and includes a destination user criterion for determining one of the plurality of channels through which to send the message to the determined carrier for routing to the destination device; accessing real-time carrier gateway dynamic information that indicates current and statistical traffic information for each of the plurality of channels to the determined carrier; and selecting one of the plurality of channels based on the predefined carrier information, the destination user information, and the carrier gateway dynamic information, wherein the availability of each of the plurality of channels is based on: predefined schedule data provided from the determined carrier; prior traffic data for each of the plurality of channels to the determined carrier a first weighting factor applied to the predefined schedule data; and a second weighting factor applied to the prior traffic data.