
Ask: Text Message Providers? (Who do Buxfer,etc use?) - e1ven
I wanted to see what experiences other news.yc members had had with text-messaging providers.<p>There's quite a few different ways to send text messages- Some providers have RPC requests versus TCP sockets, and there is a whole slew of pricing models.<p>Does anyone here have any experience working with different vendors? What have you liked/disliked?

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rokhayakebe
UPDATE: textmarks has an API. wow. there a total winner then
<http://textmarks.com/dev>

Sorry I was sleeping> Anyways here is your answer. 1. If you are broke, like
me then consider using an email to sms gateway. you will need to know the
subscriber's provider. It can work if you are offering a one-way sms service
such as updates. Watch out for SMSC spam catchers . 2. If you have money, but
no time then you can use a provider such as Clickatell or Verisign and they
will do all the background work. All you will need is an access to their API
plus a monthly fee of 500-1500/month on top of SMS fees. 3. You have money
plus time plus contacts then Forget all these guys and provision your own
short-code, then start emailing your contacts at Verizon and them to give you
access to their SMSC. When people say "I don't know how twitter pays for 250k
SMS/month" they don't know that Twitter is probably paying less than your
startup will for 10k SMS. that is the advantage of working directly with the
carriers. SMS is super cheap for them. 4. You got money, but want to be
careful, then I suggest <http://mobivity.com> or <http://textmarks>. This
service charge you for zero to only a few bucks and give you a unique keyword
plus short-code. You can easily talk to Greg Harris who is the CEO of Mobivity
and he is very open to entrepreneurs looking to use his service which is why
he has an API.I mean he will literally let you launch a product competing with
his. Textmarks doesn't have an API to my knowledge but you can certainly email
Ariel Poller. i would try something like apoller or a.poller@textmarks.com. Be
smart when you choose a provider that offers a short-code.When you rent a
shared short-code, it can change at any time and now your 50k users have to
know your new short-code. If you are doing a interactive SMS service, that can
suck. If you are going for the private short-code, then you are safe as a long
as you can shell out 1000/month. If you are proficient with Mobile
applications, the best way to go is to build your own messaging application.
Now when someone sends you a SMS or you send your user a sms ask send them a
link as well and ask them to download it. there you have it, no more SMS fees
for that guy and your messages can be 500 characters long. OOps I gotta go
make more coffee. Email me if you like and I can be more detailed, i just went
on here without knowing exactly what you are doing.

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drm237
What is the disadvantage of just using email addresses? Virtually every
wireless company provides an email to sms gateway which basically gives each
phone an email address. My current startup uses email addresses for 2 way
interaction with the system via text messages so while slightly more difficult
to configure initially, it's free!

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chaostheory
the problem is that the cell carriers are also aware of this and from what
I've heard from some people, unless you're yahoo they may block your mass
company emails

are you doing this on a big scale yet? if so please share any other tips
(especially on not getting blocked)

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Xichekolas
Not sure why they would block your messages. As long as they aren't spam
(don't send unless the user opts in), then the cell provider makes 10-15 cents
on every message you send. They should be more than happy to transport the
messages for you.

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chaostheory
good point - i guess it's just no guarantee of delivery then

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keith_erskine
Padpaw is currently using mBlox and they've been very helpful in getting us
running and approved through all the carriers. We're using the XML interface
for sending messages, but we might switch to SMPP if our volumes start getting
insane. I wrote 3 blog posts regarding our experience. You can read about it
here <[http://www.padpaw.net/blog/?p=42>](http://www.padpaw.net/blog/?p=42>).

As far as pricing, expect to pay a monthly fixed fee and then a per message
charge. I found mBlox pricing was the best.

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jgrahamc
Care to share the pricing of mBlox (privately if necessary). I'm currently
paying Clickatell about 0.06 per message.

John.

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gscott
I have been considering this, but sms gateways are more expensive then I can
afford (I haven't found a good free one).

So I have been considering sending via a mobile phone or GSM/GPRS modem for
now since I wouldn't have to scale it up very high for now:
<http://www.developershome.com/sms/freeLibForSMS.asp>

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e1ven
One thing you can do is to send it through a phone directly, but that limits
you to ~6 messages/minute.. That's not going to support a very large user base
;)

Gateways, such as <http://www.bulksms.com/> generally charge $.05c/message,
which is insanely high. Difficult to make money at those prices.

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cstejerean
unless you have some special plan carriers in the US charge 5 to 10 cents per
message anyway. Why would it be cheaper to send through your phone? I think as
you start getting large volumes of SMS you can get some sort of volume
discount (or run your own gateway).

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arasakik
You can configure Kannel (an open source SMS gateway) for use with your GSM
modem/phone. However, as others have pointed out, this does not scale.

On top of the SMS gateway you'd also need to rent a number or lease a short
code in order to receive messages. Short codes can take up to 90 days to
become active and cost ~$1000 USD/month.

There are companies that allow you to use a shared dedicated short code and
have an API to deliver mobile content - some will even do this for free
(<http://www.textmarks.com>).

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keith_erskine
You can get a shortcode in three days - $500 for a random 5-digit, $1,000 for
a vanity 5 or 6-digit. The biggest gating item is the approval process with
the carriers. That will take 6-8 weeks.

If you're getting a prototype working, textmarks might be the way to go.
You'll have to prefix your SMS command set with a keyword. Longer term you
want your customers/members to identify with your own shortcode. Imagine them
getting messages from two services on 41411

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arasakik
Right. The approval process with carriers is what makes getting a short code
so time consuming. What was it like working with the Aggregators? I've heard
mixed stories.

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keith_erskine
mBlox was good in getting us feedback and suggesting fixes during the process.
You spend most of the time waiting for the carriers to respond to applications
and testing.

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johnrob
4info will handle all of your sms messaging for free:
<http://open.4info.net/gateway.jsp>

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cdr
Having ads attached seems like a potentially pretty high cost to me.

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nextmoveone
Ive looked into Clickatell.

For outbound it is expensive(5 cents). Inbound runs like 2 cents.

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jgrahamc
I use Clickatell and like the service. At 250k messages you're getting a 23%
discount. At today's prices 250k messages will cost $12,000.

John.

