Patent ID: 7340264

Claim:
A method of providing consistency in Short Message Service (SMS) message timestamp formatting for mobile communication devices, comprising: providing a removable user identity module for a mobile communication device; and providing a timestamp mode indicator field in the removable user identify module for storing a programmed indication which is programmed as fixed value to indicate a timestamp mode of operation of a home message center of the mobile communication device as one of a coordinated universal time (UTC) mode and a non-UTC mode, the programmed indication being programmed as the fixed value for use with SMS message timestamps of each one of a plurality of SMS messages communicated between the home message center and the mobile communication device; using the programmed indication in the timestamp mode indicator field for determining whether to convert each SMS message timestamp into non-UTC format; convert the timestamp data from a UTC format to a non-UTC format corresponding to a local time zone of the mobile station when the programmed indicator which is programmed as the fixed value in the removable user identity module indicates that the timestamp mode of operation of the home message center is the UTC mode, the conversion being, performed based on a programmed memory setting in the mobile station which indicates the local time zone of the mobile station; and refrain from performing UTC-to-non-UTC format conversion of the timestamp data when the programmed indicator in the removable user identity module indicates that the timestamp mode of operation of the home message center is the non-UTC mode.