Vanished: Millions Of Short Text Mesages Never Get To RecipientsVanished: Millions Of Short Text Mesages Never Get To Recipients

Don't rely on your cell phone's short-text messaging for crucial information.

According to a study released Wednesday by Internet performance-measurement firm Keynote Systems Inc., one in 13 short-message service transmissions never make it to their destination. With about 1 billion SMS messages sent each month in the United States, that translates into millions of lost messages.

AT&T Wireless scored the highest in Keynote's study, with a success rate of 95.5% and 97.8% for delivering messages to users on other networks and within its network, respectively. T-Mobile USA, the country's sixth-largest wireless operator, was one of the worst performers--only 86% of messages sent to another network arrived, and just 87% of those sent to other T-Mobile users made it.