

Ask HN:  Is there demand for an email as text messages service? - rcavezza

Here's my situation:  I spend around $40-$50 extra a month for unlimited email access when I already receive free text messages.  If I set up an email to text service, I can save money.  I think other people can to.<p>I'm probably going to build this for myself anyway - but any thoughts of rolling this out as a full business?<p>I found a company that has a free text message api, but puts ads on the end of the text.<p>Is this a good idea for a business?  Is someone already doing it?  (that would save me time)
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there
_I spend around $40-$50 extra a month for unlimited email access when I
already receive free text messages._

i think for the vast majority of users, it's the complete opposite. free email
through something like gmail, and a 200-500 sms/month plan.

what are you using that costs $40-50 a month for email? i provide secure imap
service for my business customers and occasionally get complaints that
$15/month per mailbox is too expensive.

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rcavezza
I pay $40-$50 per month to allow internet usage on my Blackberry which is
required to receive the blackberry email feed from my gmail account.

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eof
It would be viable as an app if it abstracted away the 140 character limit of
sms. I don't think people are going to be willing to deal with the annoyance
of sending emails as multiple sms messages

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rcavezza
I'm thinking it will send subject line of 4 or 5 recent email messages - each
message has an idea #, text that id # back to the server, and it gives you the
first 140, text back read more, and it texts back another 140 - would this
solve it?

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hazooi
Personally, I think USSD would be a better way to implement this. However, it
seems the mobile carriers want to keep USSD to themselves. The 140 char limit
in SMS is a somewhat arbitrary limit in the GSM specs that we are no stuck
with. Nevertheless, your solution (using id numbers) does seem quite clever
but if this is going over a premium rate service then the SMS's will no longer
be free.

