I don't do regular text messaging from my phone, but I do use NextMail a lot, every day. I can testify that with NextMail, the text message replies sent to my phone from the recipients computer, ALWAYS arrive at my phone within 10 seconds from the time they click on Send/Receive in their email. I can read the text replies immediately, no browser used and no separate download steps required.

I don't have the in-depth knowledge that "jrfdsf" has regarding iDEN's regular text messaging system, but for NextMail, the text-reply portion works extremely well, with no significant delays, and is extremely reliable.

I have noticed that out in the sticks where the iDEN signal is not strong enough for me to make a cellular call or to use Direct Connect voice, all text replies from NextMail manage to get to my phone just fine. Of course if there is absolutely no signal, then nothing comes in, but with the incoming texts, it apparently takes very, very little signal to complete the transaction. I wonder if the Motorola "Push To Smart Replies" that transmits canned text messages with one press of the DC button, would successfuly transmit those outgoing texts from the same areas with signal too weak for voice communications but strong enough to receive incoming texts. Any idea on that, jrfdsf?