A
telecommunications system and method is disclosed for providing a substantially immediate electronic
receipt after a
consumer has made a purchase. When a
consumer makes a purchase, the sales terminal, which is attached with a short message / e-mail sending capable terminal, can generate and
route a short message along with the detailed purchase information to a transport address or
alias address associated with the
consumer via a Gatekeeper for
the Internet for the area that the sales terminal is located in. Upon
receipt of the short message, the Gatekeeper can then convert the
alias address to the transport address, if the
alias address is given and the consumer does not want the short message sent to the alias address, and forward the short message through
the Internet to that transport address (or alias address) as an
Internet Protocol datagram for storage and retrieval of the short message by the consumer either immediately or at a later time.