Validity Period (VP)

This is an optional value that can be set on a per message basis to control for how long an SMSC should attempt to deliver an SMS message. It is usually only useful when a destination recipient handset is turned off or out of coverage, and an SMS message is time critical.

The value of the Validity Period is the number of minutes from the time that the SMS message is submitted, until it should expire. When this time is reached, an SMSC would generally return an Expired delivery report.

If no Validity Period is set, the SMSC default is used which is usually 7 days (10080 minutes).

Example

Setting the Validity Period to 30 would result in an SMS message only being retried for delivery by an SMSC for a maximum of 30 minutes.