Patent ID: 8189609

Claim:
A distribution system for the delivery of a message received from a sending mobile device and intended to be distributed to a plurality of recipient mobile devices, the sending mobile device and at least one of the plurality of recipient mobile devices receiving service from different telecommunications service providers, the distribution system comprising: a home distribution agent associated with a first telecommunications service provider, the home distribution agent configured to: receive from a sending mobile device a message that is intended for distribution to a plurality of recipient mobile devices; maintain a master routing record that comprises addressing information necessary to route the message to all of the plurality of recipient mobile devices; based on the master routing record, identify one or more other telecommunications service providers that provide service to the plurality of recipient mobile devices; and transmit one message per identified other telecommunications service provider to initiate the sending of the message to recipient mobile devices that receive service from the identified other telecommunications service provider; and one or more remote distribution agents each associated with a different telecommunications service provider and each configured to: maintain a partial routing record that comprises addressing information necessary to route a message to a subset of the plurality of recipient mobile devices that receive service from the associated telecommunications service provider; and receive the one message from the home distribution agent and based on the partial routing record cause the message to be routed to the subset of the plurality of recipient mobile devices; wherein the home distribution agent is further configured to modify routing information by: receiving a modification to the plurality of recipient mobile devices; identifying a telecommunications service provider that provides service to a recipient mobile device associated with the modification; and transmitting an indication of the modification to the remote distribution agent associated with the identified telecommunications service provider; and the one or more remote distribution agents are each further configured to receive an indication of a modification and update the partial routing record to reflect the modification.