[VoiceOps] Players in the US SMS Game / Market

[Peter Beckman]

I built and ran operations for a Ringtone company back in 2004-2005, so I
have some experience with SMSCs, DLRs, and how SMS generally works.

However, over the years, there seems to be a lot of different players in
the game, some aggregators, some called something else, and honestly I
cannot seem to find any good, well-written, recent information on how and
where SMS messages flow in the US.

The players I am talking about are NOT the Tier 0 carriers (e.g. Verizon
Wireless, T-Mobile, AT&T, US Mobile), and not the CLECs/ILECs we all might work
with (Level3, Bandwidth, Inteliquent/Sinch).

I'm looking for what companies/vendors might touch SMS messaging that runs
between the 3 major US Wireless networks (I believe THEY are all
interconnected directly, but maybe not) and all the other SMS-enabled DIDs
and Short Codes that are outside of those wireless networks.

Here are players I know about, but I do not know what they do
and what other carriers use these players and why:

     - NetNumber
     - Syniverse
     - Neustar
     - SAP
     - Sybase
     - TNS

Then we have the confusing SMS routing side: ESPID, AltSPID, VSPID, NetNumberID.

Back in 2015 a post to VoiceOps stated:

 	"Syniverse and SAP are working with NeuStar to make use of the AltSPID field
 	in NPAC for SMS routing as an alternative to NetNumber. This is expected by
 	the end of the year. If you have wireline number block assignments which
 	are SMS enabled, you may be facing a monthly per-number fee from NetNumber
 	come January 1st. I suggest anyone in this position contact their SMS
 	peering hub and the NPAC Helpdesk for more information."

     https://puck.nether.net/pipermail/voiceops/2015-November/006074.html

I run a few SMSCs and pass messages through them directly to my carriers.
With one carrier I use a shared NNID, and with another I have a
dedicated/hosted NNID.

Here are my questions:

     - How would one find out through which Vendors an SMS passes, in order
       to troubleshoot deliverability or receivability issues?
     - Does anyone what vendor/aggregator that Verizon Wireless uses?
     - Are the major US wireless carriers interconnected directly, or
       through yet another vendor?
     - Has NetNumberID won out over AltSPID?
     - Why would long code SMS messages NOT generate DLRs from the receiving
       carrier through these SMS aggregators/vendors?

I acknowledge my limited understanding of all the SMS players and the
technical functionality here. Any new knowledge is appreciated.

Beckman
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Peter Beckman                                                  Internet Guy
beckman at angryox.com                                https://www.angryox.com/
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