Customer definable precedence and preemption for message services

摘要

Apparatus and a method for ordering the delivery of a plurality of messages to a destination telecommunications customer. Messages are received in an output gateway. If the customer is available, a message is immediately delivered. If the customer is not available, the message is stored in one of a plurality of queues, each queue corresponding to a precedence level for a received message. When the customer becomes available, stored messages are transmitted from the queue highest priority messages being transmitted first; lowest priority messages being transmitted last. Advantageously, this arrangement ensures that the most important messages are delivered to the customer as quickly as possible.