SMS script

[ssj_g0ku]

Hi everyone,

I work for an ISP in the UK and have been asked to looking into developing a system to sending 8bit sms messages to phones from a page on our site.

If anyone has any knowledge on this or know of any resource for SMS sending and protocol I would be sincerly grateful.

[xfriday]

Hi,


There are a number of options for sending SMS from ASP, the best option being to use a third party SMS gateway provider.

In most cases, you would have to construct a message of a particular format contain originating number, destination numbers, message body and user account details and send it via sockets or a HTTP post. For some providers, you would have to FTP a list of destination numbers and then request a message to be sent to that list. This second option is really only viable if your list does not change frequently. Quite frequently, the message format is very (almost too) similar for different providers.

For a simple way to send small numbers of SMS messages, you could use one of the web services that are available - these can be found by searching for SMS on www.salcentral.com.

The important considerations to look out for are:
1.. cost per SMS
2.. confirmation of delivery (usually an extra cost)
3.. 2-way messaging (more complicated implementation)
4.. can the originating number be set (some providers cannot provide this)
5.. where your target customers are located (In December 2001 most European mobile operators introduced internetworking fees that meant that bulk SMS delivery from outside the home network would incurr an extra charge - some providers will have direct connections to the SMSCs of the major European operators to avoid these fees)
6.. what mobile operator most of your customers are with (with the introduction of internetworking fees, a provider we used, decided it was not financially viable to send to Orange UK.)
7.. do you need to send ringtones, picture messages, operator logos, group logos or flash SMS (these all require knowledge of the destination operator and handset type).

The best advice I can give is to check out all your options, get as many guarantees of future agreements between the providers and the mobile operators as possible, and choose a solution that makes it easier to adapt to a different provider if the need arises.

Hope this helps,