[Rbowen]

There are options on the number of characters allowed in a text message.
In the US, we typically use a 7-bit format which limits the messsage to 160 characters.
Other parts of the world use either 8-bit which is limited to 140 characters or Unicode which is limited to 70-characters. (Just a note, Canada uses the 8-bit format to allow French characters, but for some reason the Canadian cell carriers reduce the message size to 134 characters)

There is software available to install on the end-users phone whch will compress the text message and increase the number of characters.
Ex. SmiZip is a java script that allows the message size to be as much as 400 characters.

This does not help on the receiver's end if they have not also installed SmiZip or a similar product.