Carrier acknowledgement is the confirmation that a destination operator accepted a message for delivery; on routes without handset receipts it is the final positive status, reported as sent.
Every route returns at least an acceptance: the operator's SMSC took the message. On many routes a handset receipt follows; on some, notably in a few countries where operators do not return receipts, acceptance is all there is. In that case the status stays at sent and nothing more is known.
Reporting should say which case applies. A provider that shows delivered everywhere is either lucky or inventing.
At SMSMeteor: countries where operators return only acknowledgement are labelled on their coverage page; billing happens at sent in every case.
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