I was always under the impression SMS messages were limited to 160 characters, and it was only whilst writing one I realised I had gone over the limit (the SPV doesn't tell you). However it got sent (and received OK), so as a test this morning I sent a text just short of 300 characters to a friend and it arrived as one SMS - it also appears as only one SMS in my outbox.

Both phones are on Orange. Has the limit been upped on SMS or will I be charged for two messages?

U will be charged 4 to texts

I'm going to check my bill for last month to see if there are any double texts going through. If there are Orange are going to be getting a phone call about it as my phone doesn't say if I've reached the limit of 160, which it should do if it is going to change the price.

yeah, u can link a certain ammounts fo texts, so u will most probably be charged

well, its not really the operators fault, its really the phones, as most modern phones ( inclduing my Siemens a50 ) has a word counter that when you go over say 150 words its classed as 2 txts so you can edit and shorten it down!
Thanh

this feature has been around for a while now. a good 2 years.

Yep... my old phone used to do that, but they've had several complaints from users of the SPV that it doesn't - they did suggest counting the characters manually - still they gave me a goodwill credit...

On my SE T300 as soon as I go over it comes up with "SMS 2" to tell me im writing a second message it also has a countdown of 20 characters when I get near the end of a message. You are unlucky not to have any of these features.