3 years, 2 months ago
Building an SMS based service
Please, no guesses, estimations, or pointers to long detailed info for a reply. I am looking for people with experience in this field, we can make generalizations. I can do my own technical research, but need to know where to start as to feasibility.
I am a developer...
A user will join and enter in their SMS number, they can then subscribe to a "group". Many people will be subscribed to the same group. If they send a SMS to the sites short code, it will be sent out to all members of the group.
As a recipient of the message, ideally, the reply goes back to the sender, not the short code number. Though the outbound message could simply have the senders SMS message included. That is less than ideal.
I have found a number of sites that are bulk SMS gateways, the fees for my test are prohibitive, but it may be the only option. I keep looking at twitter, and knowing they send many SMS's a day, wonder if they are paying a gateway provider as well.
What are my options? Must I find a gateway? Obviously, I can not use a local SMS modem, as 10-15 messages per minute is not workable. I will need 10,000's of messages per minute.
Can I build my own gateway, and make an arrangement to bypass the gateway providers, if I desire to build out the hardware and software on my own? I imagine then there may be a single registration fee for becoming a gateway.
These are the general system answers I am looking for. Technical implementation should be something I can handle on my own. As long as whatever I hook into has an API, I should be fine.
I am a developer...
A user will join and enter in their SMS number, they can then subscribe to a "group". Many people will be subscribed to the same group. If they send a SMS to the sites short code, it will be sent out to all members of the group.
As a recipient of the message, ideally, the reply goes back to the sender, not the short code number. Though the outbound message could simply have the senders SMS message included. That is less than ideal.
I have found a number of sites that are bulk SMS gateways, the fees for my test are prohibitive, but it may be the only option. I keep looking at twitter, and knowing they send many SMS's a day, wonder if they are paying a gateway provider as well.
What are my options? Must I find a gateway? Obviously, I can not use a local SMS modem, as 10-15 messages per minute is not workable. I will need 10,000's of messages per minute.
Can I build my own gateway, and make an arrangement to bypass the gateway providers, if I desire to build out the hardware and software on my own? I imagine then there may be a single registration fee for becoming a gateway.
These are the general system answers I am looking for. Technical implementation should be something I can handle on my own. As long as whatever I hook into has an API, I should be fine.
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M$2 Answers
I faced this same question about 8 months ago when I started an SMS based startup and here is what i found. It is a monopoly where competitors are blocked from competing. It is impossible to negotiate with carriers as a single person or company unless you are gigantic. Even big corporations like Jeep and NBA had to go through a SMS gateway. I recommend trying e-mail to sms. It is free, and though it may not be as professional as other options it works. The downside is that they may block you off after sending a certain number of SMS, though I've sent a few thousand in a day to AT&T (all the test accounts I set up to do load testing were AT&T phone-numbers) and they didn't block me off.
As for Twitter, they do pay for SMS though from what I understand because of the volume they pay a lower rate.
I hope this helps, even though it is not what you were hoping for (I know it wasn't what i was hoping for), and feel free to send me a direct question as I have done hundreds of hours of research in to the way SMS works from all sides of it as well as in to statistics and such. I'm not including a source website here because I've gotten this information from many different sources, I have shoveboxed more URLs than I can count.
As for Twitter, they do pay for SMS though from what I understand because of the volume they pay a lower rate.
I hope this helps, even though it is not what you were hoping for (I know it wasn't what i was hoping for), and feel free to send me a direct question as I have done hundreds of hours of research in to the way SMS works from all sides of it as well as in to statistics and such. I'm not including a source website here because I've gotten this information from many different sources, I have shoveboxed more URLs than I can count.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
You have correctly identified the problems with startup / small SMS application development.
I have explored and become frustrated with the same points that you are.
To get your idea off the ground, you need to develop a proof-of-concept. Use limited run, slow or cheap methods to get everything else working. After you have it working then worry about the carrier constraints.
An SMS modem setup is the easiest and cheapest because after development is complete, it is very easy to transition your code away from the limitations of an SMS modem to a robust setup.
After you have proof that your idea will work, if your business plan is solid, get money and negotiate on scale with one major carrier. Then, negotiate with the rest. It's possible to talk with carriers directly and they would rather cut out the middle man scenario of 3rd party sms gateways as well. However, they do not want to support your service and will not deal with you if you are not properly setup.
If you have trouble getting money, the other option is to partner with someone or license your system. Sometimes, carriers will partner (foster) new tech in this way but you will likely need to find someone with a similar product or someone who is "missing" / "in need of" your technology.
I could see it being advantageous for an up and coming SMS gateway provider to license your system if they thought that the return on investment would be sound. 3rd party gateway providers negotiate directly with carriers and usually prepay for SMS messages in blocks. If the provider could make money from your service and use (to capacity) their commitment or increase their commitment to bring down the overall price, it would make sense.
So basically, this is no different than many other startup plans. Start small, prove that you can do it and make money from it, then play in the major leagues to get your product out there. Don't try to make a jump ahead of the game or make commitments now that are too far ahead or you'll be forced into technology such as 3rd party gateways and API's that provide limited, expensive access.
I have explored and become frustrated with the same points that you are.
To get your idea off the ground, you need to develop a proof-of-concept. Use limited run, slow or cheap methods to get everything else working. After you have it working then worry about the carrier constraints.
An SMS modem setup is the easiest and cheapest because after development is complete, it is very easy to transition your code away from the limitations of an SMS modem to a robust setup.
After you have proof that your idea will work, if your business plan is solid, get money and negotiate on scale with one major carrier. Then, negotiate with the rest. It's possible to talk with carriers directly and they would rather cut out the middle man scenario of 3rd party sms gateways as well. However, they do not want to support your service and will not deal with you if you are not properly setup.
If you have trouble getting money, the other option is to partner with someone or license your system. Sometimes, carriers will partner (foster) new tech in this way but you will likely need to find someone with a similar product or someone who is "missing" / "in need of" your technology.
I could see it being advantageous for an up and coming SMS gateway provider to license your system if they thought that the return on investment would be sound. 3rd party gateway providers negotiate directly with carriers and usually prepay for SMS messages in blocks. If the provider could make money from your service and use (to capacity) their commitment or increase their commitment to bring down the overall price, it would make sense.
So basically, this is no different than many other startup plans. Start small, prove that you can do it and make money from it, then play in the major leagues to get your product out there. Don't try to make a jump ahead of the game or make commitments now that are too far ahead or you'll be forced into technology such as 3rd party gateways and API's that provide limited, expensive access.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
Hello Skyvan,
I am just researching in this area, and trying to figure out details. It would be of great help to me if you could share your research studies.
Thanks for your help!