SMS Service

Oxontime offers an SMS 'text' service for when you are out-and-about and want to know when your bus should arrive. Before you start you will need to know the  Stop Code  number of your bus stop.

There are three basic steps:

• on your mobile phone create an SMS text message containing nothing more than the Stop Code number
• send it to 84637
• within a few seconds you should receive a text message listing the next few RTI-service bus departures from that stop

If you're at a stop where there are lots of different bus services try this:

• after the Stop Code leave a space then add the bus service number you want
• - we will only send you information for  that  service ignoring all the others

If you want to know about buses a bit later in the day, try this:

• after the Stop Code number leave a space then add a time - it has to be four characters in length, in 24hr clock notation without punctuation e.g. entering 1345 will be treated as 1:45 pm
• - we will only send you information about services at your stop after this time
• - but please note, we do not make very long predictions in Real-Time terms so don't expect anything too far in the future; anything much more than one hour would be meaningless in most cases

You can also combine both these refinements, so long as the Stop Code number is correct and there is a space between each extra item, we should be able to interpret it correctly.

What you get?

Where a bus on an RTI-service is not running in a RTI-compliant mode (perhaps it's radio is broken) it will be shown as a scheduled departure in 'clock-time' e.g. '16:35' would be the timetable departure-time for this service at 4:35 pm.

Oxontime only works with RTI-services so you will not get information about non-RTI services.

Cost?

As you would expect, your text to Oxontime will be at your standard network rate for a text message. You will also be charged for the return text message, again at your standard network rate; on most networks the standard charge will be 10p but it can be more than this - see your network charges. Oxontime does not receive any money from this service.

It is up to you to check on your phone bills that your network supplier is charging you the correct rate but please note that none of our return messages is charged at more than 12p per SMS message.

If the SMS service itself is unavailable we will not charge you for the message telling you so.

Where do I send the text?

Our 'short-code' number for the Oxontime SMS service is 84637.  On the face of it this is not very memorable BUT on a standard mobile phone key-pad this is the key-sequence that spells 'TIMES'.  Not so useful for those with a QWERTY keypad!