be removed from the loop fig8 illustrates the counterpart method to those shown in fig6 and 7 from the perspective of the node that is retrieving the sms messages but is not assigned the msisdn it should be noted as a quick aside that the node that receives the sms messages and is assigned the msisdn is not necessarily doing anything novel as it is the mobile phone that has the msisdn as its phone number in step 122 a message is received containing an sms message addressed to an msisdn the msisdn can be used as a key in a lookup table to determine the user to whom the message is addressed the received message can then be forwarded for display to the user in step 124 one skilled in the art will appreciate that as illustrated in fig9 the method of fig8 may be preceded by either a registration message requesting that sms messages addressed to the msisdn be forwarded or by a polling request asking for notification of receipt of sms messages addressed to the msisdn as shown in step 126 after requesting notification in step 126 notification is received in step 128 and an explicit request either from the node that provided the notification or from another node for a copy of the received sms message is issued in step 130 the transmission of the message for display can be done using conventional protocols such as http or other protocols that will be apparent to those skilled in the art in some embodiments the message is only forwarded for display if there is an active session with the user.