Patent ID: 7409428

Claim:
A communication method comprising: registering a plurality of users for receiving messages; determining, in response to receiving a first message from at least one alert originator, one or more user terminals to receive a second message corresponding to the received first message, each of the one or more user terminals being associated with at least one registered user; converting the first message to one or more gateway messages; and transferring each of the one or more gateway messages to one or more corresponding communication gateways for distribution of the second message by the one or more communication gateways to each of the registered users associated with at least one message group, wherein the transfer is performed using a non-voice channel; wherein converting further comprises reformatting, for each of the one or more gateway messages, the first message received from the alert originator to a format in which the communication gateway associated with the gateway message will accept and perform operations in response to the incoming gateway message and forming an address for each of the one or more gateway messages to include the domain name information associated with the communication gateway or the user identification information associated with the registered user receiving the second message.