[VoiceOps] SMS gateway API.

[Brandon Lehmann]

Alex,

We've had an excellent experience developing SMS applications (inbound &
outbound) using the APIs available from http://www.clickatell.com/. I'm not
sure if they are the cheapest out there (as low as $0.01/msg received);
however, we have found their API to be one of the easiest to use.

We've also developed a few applications using direct connections to a
device. The biggest problems we ran into when using a device were: finding
a phone that would charge over USB from a computer (not all do), reliable
cellular coverage while inside a cabinet and/or closet, wireless plans with
'unlimited' txt messaging plans can get 'expensive', and a device that
isn't plagued by lockups during high-volume messaging.

-- 

Brandon Lehmann
BitRadius, LLC
Email: brandon at bitradius.com
Web: http://www.bitradius.com
Phone: 567-255-3610x9500
Toll-Free: 888-608-7253x9500
Fax: 567-255-3611


On Fri, 7 Aug 2009 21:06:19 -0400 (EDT), "Alex Balashov"
<abalashov at evaristesys.com> wrote:
> Let me add something else here:
> 
> Obviously, there are various ways to get this data off of a cell device
> that rely on use of a network rather than SMS, and can be bridged
straight
> into IP.  That would be far more straightforward, cheaper and more
> sensible.
> 
> However, that defeats one of the specific problems I'm trying to solve
> here, which is that the operating area has very, very spotty
> 3G/EDGE/EVDO/etc. coverage, but always has basic digital coverage.
> 
>>
>> Hi everyone,
>>
>> Sorry if this is a little off-topic, but I thought I would tap the
>> enormous collective wealth of knowledge here.
>>
>> I come from the fixed-line world, so I don't know terribly much about
SMS
>> or mobile anything.
>>
>> I have a situation where I need an endpoint to receive a fairly large
>> amount of SMS messages in something close to real-time and then be able
>> to
>> automatically do something with them as part of a backoffice process,
and
>> need to set up something rather quickly.
>>
>> For example, an SMS message comes into some sort of device or service,
>> and
>> this triggers a RESTful HTTP call (or SOAP, or whatever) to some agent
>> that does something with that data.
>>
>> Speed is of the essence;  this rules out most SMS-to-email gateways
>> because it usually takes at least several minutes to receive the e-mail.
>> In this case, that won't work; the delay is just too long.
>>
>> Likewise, vertically integrated SMS gateway services that provide some
>> sort of interactive online "chat" window with an interface into an SMS
>> conversation won't do.  This needs to be development-friendly;  I need
to
>> be able to write some code to do something with the contents of that
>> message post haste.  The other thing is, vendors providing those
products
>> and services in this category charge a fair bit per text message, which
>> isn't going to fly in this case because there may be a dozen text
>> messages
>> per minute or more, occasionally.  Something flat-rate would be
>> desirable,
>> even if it's expensive (say, a few hundred dollars a month).
>>
>> Lastly, I don't know if it's possible to get any kind of access circuit
>> in
>> North America over which SMS messages can be received, but even if it
>> were, that's not really an option in this case due to time constraints.
>> Likewise, setting up a GSM or CDMA receiver device registered on a cell
>> network - legitimately or otherwise - is out too, for similar reasons.
>>
>> What it really comes down to is that I need a fast SMS data relay
service
>> that handle a relatively high-volume at relatively little expense, and
>> one
>> which can provide that data via some sort of HTTP or XML-RPC or SOAP
type
>> API callback so that the data can be plumbed to an agent on my side for
>> further processing.
>>
>> I have no idea if something like this exists, or if that's tantamount to
>> a
>> request for magic.  That's why I'm inquiring.
>>
>> Thanks!
>>
>> --
>> Alex Balashov
>> Evariste Systems
>> Web    : http://www.evaristesys.com/
>> Tel    : (+1) (678) 954-0670
>> Direct : (+1) (678) 954-0671
>> Mobile : (+1) (678) 237-1775
>>
>>