Mobile terminal having one key user message acknowledgment function

A method for operating a cellular radiotelephone of a type that is bidirectionally coupled to a network through an RF interface, said cellular radiotelephone comprising a keypad having a plurality of keys and a display device for displaying information, including messages, to a user, comprising the steps of:

• transmitting a short message service (SMS) message from the network to the cellular radiotelephone;
• receiving the SMS message from the network and storing the message in a memory of the cellular radiotelephone;
• presenting the stored SMS message to a user;
• determining if the presented SMS message requires a manual acknowledgment by the user and, if so, monitoring an output of the keypad to detect a single key depression by the user;
• and
• determining if the user's single key depression is a depression of one of a predetermined set of keys and, if so, generating and transmitting to the network a SMS manual acknowledgement message that includes an identification of the single key depressed by the user.

A radiotelephone, comprising:

• a transceiver for bidirectionally coupling said radiotelephone to a telecommunications network through an RF interface;
• a user interface comprising a display and a plurality of user activated data entry keys;
• a memory;
• and
• a controller coupled to said transceiver, said user interface, and to said memory, said controller operating under the control of a stored program and being responsive to a receipt of a short message service (SMS) message from the telecommunications network for storing the received SMS message in said memory and for presenting the stored SMS message to a user through said display, said controller further operating under the control of said stored program to determine if the presented SMS message requires a manual acknowledgment by the user and, if so, for monitoring an output of said user interface to detect an activation of a single data entry key by the user, said controller further operating under the control of said stored program to determine if the user's single data entry key activation is an activation of one of a predetermined set of data entry keys and, if so, for generating and outputting to the transceiver a SMS manual acknowledgement message for transmission to the telecommunications network, said generated SMS manual acknowledgment message including an identification of the single data entry key that was activated by the user.