EMPLOYING THE SMS PROTOCOL AS A TRANSPORT LAYER PROTOCOL

Communicating data by transforming images or other non-text data into subsets of text characters and communicating each subset in an electronic message that can carry only a limited number of text characters. An embodiment transforms portions of binary data of an image or other non-text data into subsets of hexadecimal data that represents text characters. The subsets of hexadecimal text character data are included in SMS messages that have a predefined maximum number of characters. A header is included in the SMS messages to identify the ordering of the data. The SMS messages are communicated to a receiving device that orders the messages, transforms each subset of hexadecimal text characters back into the binary data, and assembles the binary data into it prior form for rendering to a user of the receiving device. A server may process the SMS messages, such as by inserting additional SMS messages with advertising data.