Patent ID: 8626209

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, by a first mobile communications network element, a messaging service message of a messaging service message type being a first messaging service message type or a second messaging service message type different from the first messaging service message type, the messaging service message destined for one of a plurality of mobile stations, different forwarding parameters being set for different mobile stations and different types of messaging service messages; issuing, by the first mobile communications network element, a first request to a home location register (“HLR”) to resolve a location of the one mobile station; receiving from the HLR, by the first mobile communications network element, a response to the first request, the response not including routing information for the messaging service message, the response including a command to forward the received messaging service message, a forwarding destination associated with the message type of the received messaging service message for the one mobile station and an indication of a second mobile communications network element for resolving a location of the forwarding destination; issuing, by the first mobile communications network element, a second request to the indicated second mobile communications network element to resolve the location of the forwarding destination, responsive to the command to forward the received messaging service message, such that the location of the forwarding destination is resolved by the second mobile communications network element; and forwarding the received messaging service message through the mobile communications network to the resolved location of the forwarding destination.