GSM 03.38 packed data in SMPP messages

I finally realized that the SMPP message center we've been using
actually receives and sends text that is packed according to section
6.1.2 of GSM 03.38.  I had to write a patch to Kannel in order to make
it unpack the data received and pack the data being sent.  Are such
SMSC's that send text data packed as per GSM 03.38 common?  I ran
across another message in the archives that this has been observed
before.  If it such message centers are common, maybe I can clean up the
patch and make it part of an SMPP bearerbox option to use packed GSM
7-bit text.

Or maybe unpatched Kannel has an option to do this unpacking that I'm
unaware of? :/