SMS conference

A wireless system for enabling many-to-many communication via SMS comprising:

• a subscriber station capable of initiating an SMS request;
• a control center operable to receive said SMS request from said subscriber station and assign an identification code to said SMS request thereby identifying said SMS conference;
• and
• a delivery protocol operable to transmit an SMS message for said plurality of conference participants, wherein one of the plurality of conference participants can send a reply SMS message to said remaining conference participants by addressing said SMS message to said identification code.

A computer program product for enabling a computer to engage in many-to-many communication via SMS comprising:

• software instructions for enabling the computer to perform predetermined operations, and
• a computer readable medium bearing the software instructions;
• the predetermined operations including:
• receiving an SMS request and assigning an SMS conference identifier (“SCID”) to said SMS request;
• transmitting an SMS message, using said SCID, to a plurality of conference participants;
• and
• enabling one of the conference participants to transmit an SMS message to the other conference participants by addressing said SMS message to the SCID.

A computer system adapted to facilitate many-to-many communication via SMS, comprising:

• a processor, and
• a memory including software instructions adapted to enable the computer system to perform:
• receiving an SMS request at a control center wherein said control center assigns an SMS conference identifier (“SCID”) to said SMS request;
• transmitting said SMS request, using said SCID, to at least one conference participant;
• and
• enabling said conference participant to transmit a short message to at least one other conference participant by addressing the short message to the SCID.

An SMS conference control center comprising:

• a receiving medium operably configured to identify and receive an SMS conference initiation message having conference participant information;
• a database for storing as a conference group said conference participant information;
• an assigning medium for assigning and SCID to a conference group;
• a matching medium for matching said assigned SCID of an incoming message with the associated SCID of said stored conference group;
• and
• a forwarding medium for forwarding said incoming message to said conference group, via said conference participant information when said SCID of said incoming message matches said stored SCID.