SMS text messaging

[Weirfire]

Does anyone have any idea how you could go about sending automated text messages from a web page? Is there a company that you can link up with to provide this service?

[T0PS3O]

I know there were PHP hacks around to use the various free online SMS services but wouldn't be able to mention names or details since I can't remember.

(Very helpful hey? :) )

[Weirfire]

lol TOPS

It's certainly an idea. You could use the free O2 texts but would probably be very hard to implement especially for a PHP novice like myself :)

[T0PS3O]

I did look up services myself one day but you need to pre buy tons of texts... Not economical for the occasional 'your website didn't ping' text.

What is your plan with texting? Some reporting thing for yourself or a public service?

[Weirfire]

A possible client is talking about a business venture through some kind of football game site. I reckon it might be something like guessing scores etc. If it's proper gambling then I won't be doing it.

I won't be involved with sites to do with gambling, adult material, alcohol, cigarrettes etc etc. It just sucks that there is so much money in it.

[T0PS3O]

Good on you, sticking to your morals; I like that.

Have you tried hotscript.com to see for that functionality? I'm sure it will require paying etc. but I'm sure there's something out there.

[Weirfire]

I'll have a look. It's an interesting subject. I reckon it will be something fairly popular soon enough.

Are you sure it wasn't hotscripts.com with the extra s on the end. hotscript.com doesnt seem to load.

[dkalweit]

Does anyone have any idea how you could go about sending automated text messages from a web page? Is there a company that you can link up with to provide this service?

How about using the SMTP/Email gateways used by many Cell Phone providers? Here in the US, I can send messages to cell phones by Emailing addresses such as 5555555555@vtext.com, 5555555555@mobile.mycingular.com, 5555555555@messaging.sprintpcs.com, 5555555555@messaging.nextel.com, and 5555555555@mobile.att.com. I'm betting they have similar Email gateways for non-US providers...


--
Derek

[Weirfire]

How about using the SMTP/Email gateways used by many Cell Phone providers? Here in the US, I can send messages to cell phones by Emailing addresses such as 5555555555@vtext.com, 5555555555@mobile.mycingular.com, 5555555555@messaging.sprintpcs.com, 5555555555@messaging.nextel.com, and 5555555555@mobile.att.com. I'm betting they have similar Email gateways for non-US providers...


--
Derek


Thanks,

I'll have a look into it.

I assume you have to pay the same cost of a text?

[dkalweit]

Thanks,

I'll have a look into it.

I assume you have to pay the same cost of a text?

Sending the Email is free; receiving is dependent on the cellphone provider.


--
Derek

[Weirfire]

Does the message automatically come up on peoples phones?

I'm looking for a service which is non restrictive and will work for anyone who has a mobile phone.

[T0PS3O]

No, that e-mail texting depends on providers. It's not the same as direct sms.

Basically, if you send 10.000 to one person, he/she will get a nasty bill too. That has to be specifically opt-in IMO.

[dkalweit]

Here's a list that may help to find the SMS Email addresses for the popular cell phone providers. There's a link on the page to a more comprehensive list with even more providers, including international ones.

Cell Phone Provider SMS Email Addresses (http://www.sensiblesoftware.com/CellPhone-Pager-Notification.asp)

[Weirfire]

I've decided not to take the job. While it isn't directly a gambling site they are creating, it's a site that promotes gambling.

Believe me, it's a lot harder to actually turn down business because of morals than it is to say you'd turn down business. :(

[john_loch]

Hi Weirfire,

I've done extensive work with SMS integration. In fact, I assisted with the odd provider or two when rolling out coverage for Australian networks (for testing purposes), and I'm actually in the process of integrating SMS support for one of my clients right now.

If you need to do this in the future (and yes, you'll have to pay, it's just a matter of pricing and redundancy (gateways)), the following co is your best option. They also provide all the code and multiprotocal support you'll need, and have been the cheapest/reliable that I'm aware of for at least three years now.

Clickatell (http://www.clickatell.com/)

Alternatively, if you need a provider that has serious redundancy/anti congestion support (ie 24 gateways), try smsXchange (http://www.smsxchange.com/)

Anyone interested in SMS integration should bookmark Clickatell - it took me a while (several years ago) to identify a suitable provider in this regard and I'm happy to recommend them.

--------------------

Wouldn't it be nice to receive notification of key events where SEO is concerned ! - Hey Shawn, can you put this in place so when I reach a weighting of 1,000,000 I get notified by SMS ? :D

--------------------


Cheers,

JL

[Weirfire]

Thanks that's great research.

You dont even pay for any software... only the text messages. :cool:

[DarrenC]

http://www.itagg.com/

Try these.

[Weirfire]

Thanks wwh

More of these companies would be great if you know any.

I have a project idea I'd like to try out next year.

[Daniel]

Weir,

I use the email feature to send a message to my cell phone from my site.

If you check out my site and click on the E-Page the network admin pager icon.

You can see the app i built in perl that simply emails a message to my phone.

I know this was brought up earlier in the thread I just wanted to mention that in Canada the provider I use BELL CANADA allows the receipt of all SMS messages to be free.

After all you can't really control who sends you a message and if they charge you to receive the message then what happens if someone spam’s you to no end?

Anyway.... I like the little app I wrote. It allows my clients to contact me quickly and leave a phone number where I may be able to reach them :)

[DarrenC]

Nice work Daniel! :)

Weir - I'm looking at SMS technology myself, to see how I can implement this within our website. i.e. holidaymakers contacting property owners regarding booking their holiday home.

Let me know what you find out and I'll do likewise!

Darren :)

[Weirfire]

Sure Darren.

I was having a look at o2 actually but you can only send 5 texts at once. The reason I was looking at them is because they offer 10 free texts per month per mobile. After that you can buy texts in bulk for 4p a text. I would be looking for more than 5 texts sent at a time though.

Thanks Daniel. I'm really looking for SMS only at this moment in time as there are still a lot of people who can't receive email and a heck of a lot more than dont have a clue how to use it. It still may feature in my plans next year though so I'll definitely look into it. :)

[TLDTrader.com]

Textmefree.com has a list of free SMS providers worldwide.

Hope this helps.

[Weirfire]

Hmmm, those sites aren't bad. I'll be looking to send texts to bulk numbers.

CBFSMS.com you don't even need to signup you just text away to your hearts content.

[longcall911]

I partner with a good friend in Tel Aviv who offers a complete service that allows you to send an SMS message (or a two way question) to a list of potentially thousands of cell phones almost anywhere in the world, simultaneously.

It's not something that you can integrate into your own site's programming. Rather, the user goes to their site, logs in, types a message (or question) and sends it off. The sender pays for all messages (low fee, bulk rate) and the recipient never does. That's because only SMS gateways that support reverse billing and high priority messaging are used.

There's more info on my site: http://www.audience-response-rentals.com/cellular.htm and if seems like something you could use, email me using the 'contact us' page. I can set up a live demo.

The biggest obstacle I've come to is that adults in the USA don't have a clue about text messaging.

[Weirfire]

Say I wanted to send 500 texts a week only within the UK... how much would that cost?

When sending the text messages would I be able to control who it says is the sender?

Do I have to logon to your website to use the service or is their a script that I can plugin to my own site?

[longcall911]

Say I wanted to send 500 texts a week only within the UK... how much would that cost?Roughly, $10 US ($.02/sms) for one way messages. If you send a question and they reply, the reply is also a message.

When sending the text messages would I be able to control who it says is the sender? I'll have to check on that. I think the gateway (i.e. someone like Clickatell) comes up as the sender, but that could be different now.

Do I have to logon to your website to use the service or is their a script that I can plugin to my own site?The user interface resides on my partner company's (mobile feedback) site. And so, for things like uploading cell numbers, entering questions, and viewing response graphs, you have to login.

However, you do not have to login to actually send messages. They can be on a schedule, or via keyword. (I haven't tried the keyword method yet as it is new.) Basically, the account holder sends an sms containing the keyword to the system, it then sends the message associated with the keyword to the cell list.

I'll get a bit more detail on that as well. You may be able to send the keyword from your website, as an sms (that part is easy). I just don't know if the system needs to see a specific cell number as the originator. I'll find out though.

Ultimately, they will build an API so that any website can integrate this capability. But that is probably some years away.

[Weirfire]

It sounds like the service that I'm needing. :)

There's plenty of time though as I won't be officially starting this project until July. I'll speak to you a bit more about it later.

Cheers

[MattnLinda99]

Nice work Daniel! :)

Weir - I'm looking at SMS technology myself, to see how I can implement this within our website. i.e. holidaymakers contacting property owners regarding booking their holiday home.

Let me know what you find out and I'll do likewise!

Darren :)
I came across a site which apparently gives you the script to set up a page me button on your site. You would be able to set one up for each person that you need a page to.
The site is http://www.page-me.com/

I'm looking for SMS messaging which also allows replies to be received over the internet, in the form of instant messaging or replies to be sent to an email address of my choice. Any free sites out there that do this?

I'm experimenting with icq.com's SMS download however, I am unable to send any messages. It's as though their system is overloaded.
Any help would be appreciated.

I'm currently searching google at
http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&c2coff=1&as_qdr=all&q=%22free+SMS+providers%22+internet&btnG=Search

[john_loch]

I'm looking for SMS messaging which also allows replies to be received over the internet, in the form of instant messaging or replies to be sent to an email address of my choice. Any free sites out there that do this?


Not too likely. It's a different ballgame that one. When inet originated mssgs are sent to a mobile the unique identifier is maintained by the mobile carrier. It's easily done, because the infrastructure is already in place.

To receive sms however, means you have to have a unique identifier of your own (a sim) that is maintained and tied into a device on the net. It's not overly cheap I can assure you - and of course there's no reason it would be, you can charge quite a bit per sms that's mobile originated.

Try http://www.clickatell.com/brochure/products/2way.php - I use them myself and it's well managed. You'll find that sending sms messages is cheap, almost every concievable protocol is supported, and they have great support if you're new to the technology.. plenty of docs and tools etc.

Cheers,

JL

[smswarehouse]

I see people are looking for products to send sms with on this thread - there is a new "kid" on the block - a free desktop tool - more upgrades are coming and those that want to use http or smpp are more than welcome. Pricing range from 2.5 Euro cent per SMS for the pc 2 mobile solution depending on the networks you wish to deliver to and the country youre in.

Also, MO messages depends on the country that you are in - various options are also available as far as this is concerned.

If more info is needed please contact me.

[Weirfire]

Welcome to the forum SMS.

I am interested in sending texts from a website. It is necessary that the messages that are sent do not have adverts on them and also that they state they are from my own brand. Is this possible?

[smswarehouse]

Hi,

You are referring to a sender ID and if you want to set your own identity you would require an alpha sender id - there alpha, numeric and alphanumeric options.

Being able to set it depends on the software and or provider you use. The price tag normally depends on these features as one would pay more for a dynamic sender ID than a fixed numeric sender ID.

Sometimes free sms have adverts attached as footers or sender Id's as someone has to pay for the sms. Nothing in the messaging business if for free.

I can help you and point you to an appropriate product which you can test for free and decide if you wish to use it depending on the networks you wish to cover.

Please e-mail me at hq@smswarehouse.com so that I could assist you to find the right product for your needs.

Marinda Stuiver

[T0PS3O]

Weirfire, been looking into this again and found these people:

http://www.kapow.co.uk/services.html

Send via HTTP request
A simple HTTP Get or Post request is all it takes to send an SMS. This is the ideal sending method for an online application or website. It's possible to include any number of recipients within a single request. So it's perfect for an alert from your monitoring system; or for hundreds of adverts to your entire client base.

Starting at 8.5p a text, dropping to 5p for bulk.

[Weirfire]

Weirfire, been looking into this again and found these people:

http://www.kapow.co.uk/services.html



Starting at 8.5p a text, dropping to 5p for bulk.

This sounds pretty interesting as I have actually just started on this project last week. Hopefully it will be complete in the next 2 weeks and I'll be able to start researching into the text services.

Thanks for the link TOPS. :)

[john_loch]

Hi Weirfire,

Another option for you (I'm not sure if I posted this ages ago) but worth a look because they have every API under the sun and even support mobile originateds etc, is www.clickatell.com

I assisted with testing their Australian rollout about 4-5 years ago (they're global), and I've found them value for money.

Cheers,

JL

[T0PS3O]

Nice one John, they even have the (PHP) scripts listed for us already:

http://www.clickatell.com/brochure/sms_scripts.php

They're a lot cheaper as well starting at just 4.4 Euro cents (3p-ish vs 8.5p with kapow):

http://www.clickatell.com/brochure/pricing.php

[Weirfire]

Hi Weirfire,

Another option for you (I'm not sure if I posted this ages ago) but worth a look because they have every API under the sun and even support mobile originateds etc, is www.clickatell.com

I assisted with testing their Australian rollout about 4-5 years ago (they're global), and I've found them value for money.

Cheers,

JL

Fantastic John!!

This definitely makes the texting part of my new project a lot more interesting :) I'll let you know how I get on with them.

[T0PS3O]

Here's another viable alternative (http://www.tm4b.com/sending-sms/message_pricing/?this_country=United%20Kingdom) plus all the code written out (http://codewalkers.com/tutorials/90/1.html) for you.

[piniyini]

There's also vgsmail.com which I use, texts are 041p

[Weirfire]

There's also vgsmail.com which I use, texts are 041p

Is that 4.1p?

[Trance-formation]

Is that 4.1p?
Hey Weir, just found this thread

I've just started up a database driven site that uses an SMS gateway to send motivational and inspirational quotes via text. (www.inspiration-daily.com). I used www.tm4b.com which was brought to my attention here on dp... they are UK based, very competitive on price, give great support on the coding and it works really well... now all I need are subscribers :D

My system is now 100% up and running, so if you need any more info let me know... I also have lists of all the international telephone codes by country to populate a pull down menu etc

No ads, and you can brand the originator

[Weirfire]

And was it 4.1p per text?

[Trance-formation]

And was it 4.1p per text?
for www.tm4b.com, UK delivery ranges from 3.3p a text (high monthly volume, Business class delivery) to 5p a text (low volume, First Class delivery) plus Vat

http://www.tm4b.com/sending-sms/message_pricing/?this_country=United%20Kingdom

[Weirfire]

for www.tm4b.com, UK delivery ranges from 3.3p a text (high monthly volume, Business class delivery) to 5p a text (low volume, First Class delivery) plus Vat

http://www.tm4b.com/sending-sms/message_pricing/?this_country=United%20Kingdom

Thanks TF,

I'd probably be able to make a fair profit from that depending on what the legal implications are.

[piniyini]

sorry for the late reply, yes that is 4.1p a text

[yezooz]

Hi!

I just launched new SMS gateway.

If you want to test my service, register at the website and then contact me to charge the account.
It's under beta testing right now, but I hope you want to join them too. While tests it's free of course, but limited.

Prices ? From $0.01 per message

Any suggestions are welcome !!!

Address: http://www.quicksms24.com
Contant: offer@quicksms24.com

PS. I know that it's design sucks, but it will be changed at the end.

[techhead]

We've been using Kapow (http://www.kapow.co.uk/) for about 6 years now to send SMS Text Messages from several of our client sites.

It's always been very reliable but most messages now arrive within 5 seconds, and it seems a good price.

It's about 6p per message for us (but if you buy more then it drops to about 4p) and there's no other fees to pay, and you can send to any country for the same price - when I send from my own mobile it costs me 25p to send abroad - so it's quit a saving.

They support a number of interfaces including HTTP / E-mail and CSV batches etc...

I also think they were the first SMS Gateway in the world - or the UK anyhow.

I'd deffinately reccommend them to anyone who needs SMS.

[Weirfire]

We've been using Kapow (http://www.kapow.co.uk/) for about 6 years now to send SMS Text Messages from several of our client sites.

It's always been very reliable but most messages now arrive within 5 seconds, and it seems a good price.

It's about 6p per message for us (but if you buy more then it drops to about 4p) and there's no other fees to pay, and you can send to any country for the same price - when I send from my own mobile it costs me 25p to send abroad - so it's quit a saving.

They support a number of interfaces including HTTP / E-mail and CSV batches etc...

I also think they were the first SMS Gateway in the world - or the UK anyhow.

I'd deffinately reccommend them to anyone who needs SMS.

When sending a message are there any footers on the message?

[T0PS3O]

I decided on trying Kapow too. They offer a free demo account with something like 25 credits. No added text, just the 'From' field is set to kapow.co.uk by default. Pay 50 quid and you can have it the way you want it.

My experiences are very good with them. Sending is as easy as doing a file get. Delivery is instantaeous.

[sarahk]

I'm looking at all of this too and one of the issues that I have with non-new zealand providers is that we have 2 networks running different technology. Almost all offer the vodafone network, fewer offer Telecom and really, you're dead in the water if you don't cover both. The pricing is usually quite different too which makes it interesting.

Sarah

[Weirfire]

I decided on trying Kapow too. They offer a free demo account with something like 25 credits. No added text, just the 'From' field is set to kapow.co.uk by default. Pay 50 quid and you can have it the way you want it.

My experiences are very good with them. Sending is as easy as doing a file get. Delivery is instantaeous.

This could be very interesting as a feature for several websites I maintain. Is it really 4p a text if you bulk buy?

Have you ever had any downtime?

[yezooz]

I could offer much better prices:

Rates are:
1-10k messages - $0.02 per msg
10k-50k - $0.015 per msg
50k+ - $0.01 per msg

Details at: offer@quicksms24.com

[Weirfire]

Can you describe about your services in a little more detail yezooz?

Things like;

Can you integrate this service with PHP?
Can it have whatever you like on the end of a message and who it's from?
What is the uptime?

[yezooz]

Firstly register at http://www.quicksms24.com. Email me at offer@quicksms24.com you're login and I will charge some credits for testing purposes. We're company from Poland and our provider is the polish gsm operator, so this sms service is reliable.

API
Connections via HTTP:
http://www.quicksms24.com/send.php?number=num1,num2,num3&content=&login=&pass=

Possible anwsers:
err1 = bad login or pass
err2 = not enough credits
err3 = wrong parameters
ok = sent

Request just login with password, and you'll receive number of credits.
If you send sms (with number and content) you'll receive just "ok" (each "ok" for each sent sms).

Covergage list - http://www.quicksms24.com/docs/coverage_list.pdf

Sender ID cannot be changed, delivery reports will be available soon.

Contact:
EMAIL & MSN: offer@quicksms24.com

Greetings

[Weirfire]

Firstly register at http://www.quicksms24.com. Email me at offer@quicksms24.com you're login and I will charge some credits for testing purposes. We're company from Poland and our provider is the polish gsm operator, so this sms service is reliable.

API
Connections via HTTP:
http://www.quicksms24.com/send.php?number=num1,num2,num3&content=&login=&pass=

Possible anwsers:
err1 = bad login or pass
err2 = not enough credits
err3 = wrong parameters
ok = sent

Request just login with password, and you'll receive number of credits.
If you send sms (with number and content) you'll receive just "ok" (each "ok" for each sent sms).

Covergage list - http://www.quicksms24.com/docs/coverage_list.pdf

Sender ID cannot be changed, delivery reports will be available soon.

Contact:
EMAIL & MSN: offer@quicksms24.com

Greetings

Thanks for that yezooz. I'm not quite ready to start using this service but I will be interested in it in the coming weeks. I'll send you a PM once I'm ready.

Thanks for the info. :)

[GeorgeB.]

Errm....

I always thought it was FREE to send messages. Do you mean true SMS as in through an SMS gateway or just sending text messages (which can be done with 1 line of code).

Check out this PHP tutorial: http://codewalkers.com/tutorials/90/1.html

[SpeedyDomainRegistration]

Anyone tried http://www.teleflip.com ?

Looks like only work in North America but it is free.


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[techhead]

This could be very interesting as a feature for several websites I maintain. Is it really 4p a text if you bulk buy?

Have you ever had any downtime?

Been a client of theirs for years and never had any downtime... they gaurentee 99.99% uptime... but not noticed the 0.01% downtime. ;o)

[Weirfire]

Been a client of theirs for years and never had any downtime... they gaurentee 99.99% uptime... but not noticed the 0.01% downtime. ;o)

lol I don't think anyone advertises that they have 100% uptime.

[john_loch]

API uptime is always important, but I'd be more concerned about gateway/routing/Queuing of msgs. That's where things get dicey. I mean, a message can traverse multiple carriers to reach it's destination (guaranteed if you're using a cheap service) and all it takes is a big event, a soccer game, an international incident of some sort and voilla instant congestion.

If your service matters (ie SMS notification of a box going down or other critical stuff) you need to be able to choose your gateways. Some providers will offer you multiple gateways to use, and you just choose which one according to priority (and cost) - a nice feature if available per msg/via API.

http://www.smsxchange.com/main/default.asp might be worth a look :)

Cheers,

JL

[techhead]

Kapow is always very quick, they claim on the site ([www.kapow.co.uk) that the average delivery time is 4.8 seconds, and in my experience it seems to be true, or even quicker as we receive the messages instantly.
One of our clients is a Taxi firm who uses the service to send jobs to drivers... so it's very time critical.

[Weirfire]

Kapow is always very quick, they claim on the site ([www.kapow.co.uk) that the average delivery time is 4.8 seconds, and in my experience it seems to be true, or even quicker as we receive the messages instantly.
One of our clients is a Taxi firm who uses the service to send jobs to drivers... so it's very time critical.
What about at peak times. What is the slowest delivery time for a message to be sent? And also would you be able to handle 500 messages being sent at once?

[T0PS3O]

Why don't you ring Kapow, they are nice folk, they;ll have all your q's answered in no time.

[jpcesar]

I'm currently using www.clickatell.com and they are great. You can send by SMTP or HTTP post, they have a nice API documentation.

If you signup you have 10 sms's for free to test with.

Best Regards

[fambi]

Whoever is reading this thread should draw up a table and compare all of the features/prices offered by different providers and base their decision on that (i.e. carefully) and select 2 or 3 in order of preference.

When our company was small-time, providing a simple bulk sms application, we used www.mxtelecom.com (who are very good, but expensive). We were then offered a better price (almost 40% less) for the same service from another company (which i don't want to publicly shame). At the testing stage, everything was okay - but just before we were about to switch from MX to the new company, the new company made some changes on their side that rendered our whole application useless. This was about the 4th or 5th booboo they made on their side and so we gave up with them and it took us about 8 weeks to get refunded for the £550+ purchase we made, but thankfully we got it. Unfortunately, we had reduced our prices with the new supplier in mind and had to work at a loss for those 8 weeks.

Since then, we have moved much further up the ladder and provide our gateway service around the needs of our customers, bearing in mind that we ourselves used to be in the same boots as they are now. We allow the originator of First Class messages to be customised at no extra cost, we do not have any minimum purchase sizes, our small purchase-size prices (e.g. UK 5p) are the same as other's bulk prices and we provide added-value in significant quantities. In brief, we have based our success on the success of our customers, not on their failure.

So, to summarise, draw up the table comparing everything that is being offered and prices. Then invest a little amount of money to test their services in real condition, and have a second provider in your mind as a back-up in case the first one fails.

Ooh! One more thing - when we were establishing an SMPP connection with one provider, they decided to suddenly throw in a minimum monthly spend of £700. That was done just before a serious broadcast had to take place for a London univeristy and i think they did it because they felt we would comply out of desperation to ensure everything went well for the university. So make sure that you do not get committed to any monthly throughput or minimum monthly spend because, whilst your idea might sound great, it may take time to pick-up and you'll be working at a loss that might send you out of business before it happens.

Good luck with all of your applications.

Fahed Bizzari
www.tm4b.com

[lateks]

i have only good experience with clickatel so far.

[boccio]

Clickatell is good, but expensive. There is quite the number of small players on the market who play fair and square, you just need to spend some time searching :)

I'm using www.justsms.net, and frankly I'm quite satisfied...

[freshbaked]

I have a sms sending script you may be interested in. Take a look.

PM me with questions.

http://phpmysms.com

thanks!