Patent ID: 7321921

Claim:
A method of communicating with a mobile communication device, the method comprising: providing the communications network with one identifier for each mobile communication device in a group of mobile communications devices; receiving network information for a given mobile communication devices included in the group, wherein the network information is related to the presence of the given mobile communication device in the communications network and indicates that the give mobile communication device is in a given state, the given state selected from the group consisting of off-network and on-network; before transmitting any user communication message to the mobile communications device, processing the network information to determine whether the mobile communication device is present on the communications network; responsive to determining that the mobile communication device is not present on the communications network, delaying the transmission of the first user communication message, wherein the transmission of the first user communication message is delayed until the mobile communication device is present on the communications network; transmitting a first user communication message to the communications network for user messaging, wherein the communications network relays the first user communication message to the mobile communication device; and displaying to a user information related to delivery of the first user communication message, wherein prior to receiving a second user communication message from the communications network, displaying to a user information conveying that the first user communication message has not been received by the mobile communication device; and responsive to receiving the second user communication message from the communications network, displaying to the user information conveying that the first user communication message has been received by the mobile communication device.