Whirlpool

Today I have been researching SMS gateways. There is a mind boggling number of options out there, and i feel like im going around in circles! i have listed my requirements below and would be grateful for any pointers or general advice. I realise this topic has been debated before on this forum, but as this is so important to my business, I wanted to start a thread myself.

- RELIABILITY IS KEY. If I was spamming marketing blurb, then I wouldn't mind if one or two SMS got 'lost'. But this is not the case for me. Users will be paying for this service. So reliability is crucial.

- I am looking for a company with a proven track, preferrably with a renowned client list. i.e. I DO NOT want Joe Bloggs, who has set up a web server in his bedroom, and put together a corporate looking website to disguise this. :)

- I am looking for a gateway which offered me the ability to program against a web service API. i.e. I want to automate the SMS sending process by calling a web service from my own ASP.NET web application.

- my requirements are to send batches of text messages each day, and to receive some kind of success/failure notification so that i can update my SMS history database accordingly.

So far the Australian companies I am considering are as follows: Esendex, MessageNet, Message Media, Redcoal. As far as I can see, they are all pretty similar (approx 22 cents per text). Except Redcoal charges an initial $695 fee to use their API toolkit. (Although their salesman they are the most reliable). :)

Other international alternatives are Clickatell and www.tm4b.com. These offer much cheaper rates per text (approx 8 cents per text). But I find myself asking "is there a reason they are cheaper?" i.e. "are they not going to be as reliable?"

any help, recommendations, or general advice much appreciated! thanks.

I just signed up for Clickatell a few days ago, very happy with it so far - especially at such a cheap rate.

I'm using their HTTPS API that would work fine with your system. They offer the tracking features that you also require so that shouldn't be a problem. I can't comment on reliability because as I said, I've just signed up myself. They also support batch messaging but I haven't looked into this as it's not one of my requirements, but if the rest of what I've used is anything to go off then you'll be fine.

Best of all, it's extremely simple to use.

Hope this helps :-)

thanks for you reply. Does anybody else have experience with Clickatell so they can comment on the reliability? Has anyone got any other recommendations? And why are international SMS providers so much cheaper than aussie ones?

For the work I do onsite with a large Government client, we utilise Telstra Online SMS Business and it works all fine with 100% success rates of delivery and you can get delivery reports. Not sure on the cost as we dont pay for this. But fully recommend it.

Wee Bubba writes...

and to receive some kind of success/failure notification so that i can update my SMS history database accordingly.


SMS has no such thing, unfortunately. SMS messages are are accepted for delivery but you'll never know from the network if it ever got to the user's handset. (edit: SMS delivery reports may help but haven't investigated further) SMSs can and (from experiences from my own SMS gateway) do disappear into the ether for no reason at all.

If it's important in your application to get a confirmed receipt then you need a two-way gateway that logs SMS replies back into your database. We use a product from MGMWireless for this which works well.

Wee Bubba writes...

Does anybody else have experience with Clickatell so they can comment on the reliability?

I've been using Clickatell for about 6 months... on the whole, they have been very good, and most SMSs get through in a couple of seconds, though there have been the occasional problems where delivery can take considerably longer, sometime up to an hour.

They do, however, E-mail you if there are issues so you know what's happening.

The most annoying thing is that the date/time on the SMSs are 'their time' rather than 'our time' and there's nothing that you can do to change the timezone.

What I really like is that there are several interfaces into the system. E-mail, http/s, ftp... really flexible.

gavinWA writes...

SMS has no such thing, unfortunately. SMS messages are are accepted for delivery but you'll never know from the network if it ever got to the user's handset.

Using Clickatell you can be told when the SMS has reached the handset.

When you construct the request you tell Clickatell what type of callback you want.

You can select
* no confirmation
* confirmation that the message has been received by the gateway
* confirmation that the message has been received by the handset

If you select that you want to be advised when the message has arrived at the handset you will infact receive two callbacks... one when it hits the gateway and the second when it has been delivered.

I don't know what type of magic they use, but it works quite well.

I can show you this working if you want.

gavster writes...

The most annoying thing is that the date/time on the SMSs are 'their time' rather than 'our time'

I've found that it's fine for me.. I've set my default country code to 61 so maybe that's got something to do with it but other then that I have no idea?

gavster writes...

one when it hits the gateway and the second when it has been delivered

Yeah I've been using this too it's quite handy. They say that it comes down to the handset supporting it, but in my testing so far every handset I've sent to has sent the delivery report thing back.

your best bet is to purchase 2 (or more for redundancy/throughput) sms terminal (effectivly an SMS modem) something like www.falcom.de/index.php?id=1015 (personally i have used there A2D terminals with great success) through a normal mobile SIM card in it & away you go.

Just treat it like a normal modem, this way you have control over sending the messages & you are not reliant on a 3rd party or internet connection etc etc because you are putting the messages DIRECTLY onto the mobile network.

Otherwise, have a look at Telstra & their 'SMS Online Business'

Hello there, and thanks for you replies.

I've narrowed my choice down to Clickatell, Esendex and tm4b.

Has anybody here got any experience with Esendex that they would like to share with me?

gavster mate ive sent you an instant message

Might be a bit old, but i can tell you that both TM4B and Esendex are good people to work with and they both provide a reliable service. TM4B will deliver their Australian messages with Australian timestamps which, depending on where the mobile is, might not necessarily be 100% accurate (but that even goes with any Australian supplier).

I would get in contact with both of them and see what their customer support is like. Also make sure to request a trial account.

You might also want to try www.mxtelecom.com.

(btw - I, personally, don't like Clickatell and i feel they spend more money on marketing than customer service.)

I have been using bulksms.com.au from an ASP .NET application with success. I have called their support number and talked to 3 different people in the space of 5 minutes, so they seem to be a real business and all that.

Hi Wee, not sure if you still need help or not, but I thought I might be able to give you some help on this matter.

I’ll be honest and say I work for one of the companies you mentioned, but I’ll keep that to myself.

I’ll be as brief as possible here. If you want quality and reliability go with a provider that uses local networks. There is a place for cheaper service no doubt, but if your customers are paying for the service then I wouldn’t recommend going down that path.

You can get receipts advising the status of the messages all the way through to hitting the phone – most handset these days will send back a receipt advising that it got the message.

Gavster mentioned about time stamps, depending on your customers it might actually be important otherwise your customers will think you’re in your bedroom in Indonesia (no offence to any Indonesian’s here), but you get my drift.

Do ask the companies in question who their corporate customers are, and ask them if they are still providing a current service to them and if those services are mission critical?

Don’t pay for API’s, it’s right up there with Banks charging to open accounts! So are setups and user fees (where companies charge depending on the number of uses) on business SMS services.

There have been a couple of suggestions about looking at using the Networks themselves, although their pricing is generally more expensive again, you’d be surprised to know that not all division within Networks use their own services to send business SMS.

Have look at the following link;

www.developershome.com/s...seSMSGateway.asp

It’s independent and talks about a number of different points to look at!

As Jonny5 says, the best bet is to get a trial account from each of the contending companies, get their API’s and test them out – if you’re happy with the service then move onto the next step!

Hope this has been helpful!