Patent ID: 7730163

Claim:
A multimedia message service apparatus, comprising: first decision means that, when receiving a multimedia message that has been transmitted, references an international prefix table to decide whether or not the message is to be transmitted internationally to a forwarding destination, based on transmission destination information in said multimedia message; second decision means that, if the first decision means decides that the message is to be transmitted to the forwarding destination, references a first routing table based on said transmission destination information to decide whether or not the forwarding destination supports number portability; first acquisition means that, if the second decision means decides that the forwarding destination does not support number portability, acquires the domain name of the forwarding destination from said transmission destination information by referencing said first routing table; second acquisition means that, if said second decision means decides that the forwarding destination does support number portability, acquires international identification information corresponding to said transmission destination information by inquiring registration means that registers subscriber data and acquires the domain name of the forwarding destination by referencing a second routing table based on the international identification information that has thus been acquired; and forwarding means that forwards said multimedia message to the forwarding destination of the domain name that has been acquired by said first acquisition means or said second acquisition means.