Distributed data storage and delivery in a cellular telephone network

Abstract

Procedures are disclosed for supporting roaming subscriber mobile station access to stored subscriber data messages. In one aspect, a received subscriber data message is routed for storage and subsequent forwarding/retrieval, not to a “home” message center, but instead to a message center either optimally positioned with respect to a current known location of the subscriber mobile station or associated with an initially receiving mobile switching center. In another aspect, a mailbox established for a given subscriber mobile station in the home message center is transferred (perhaps on a periodic basis) for storage in a local mailbox of a proximate message center within a cellular telephone network where the subscriber is currently roaming. In either case, the storing message center thereafter performs any requisite operations needed to facilitate message forwarding to or retrieval by the addressee subscriber mobile station.