Newbie Question - SMSC Gateway

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Mat Phillips
New member
Username: Emmjay

Post Number: 1
Registered: 07-2007
Posted on Monday, July 09, 2007 - 03:11 am:   

Can the following be done with now.sms?

I want to be able to change the SMSC number in a mobile phone to the number of my gsm modem. This modem should forward all sms via HTTP (cheaper). The mobile phone does not get charged for sending, but I pay for the sms.

I remember when I was 10 and free SMSC numbers were shared among friends - we all had free SMS! Obviously, someone had to pay. Is this how these 'free' SMSCs were set up?

Many Thanks,
Mat Phillips
Bryce Norwood - NowSMS Support
Board Administrator
Username: Bryce

Post Number: 7340
Registered: 10-2002
Posted on Wednesday, July 11, 2007 - 03:49 pm:   

Hi Mat,

It's a great idea, but you can't turn a GSM modem into an SMSC number.

It would be great if you could, and I'm not unconvinced that a specialised GSM modem couldn't be developed for this purpose (it might require some extra radio logic). But it is not possible with a standard GSM modem.

What you remember from the old days was that some mobile operators had SMSCs that were not properly secured. So let's say that you were a subscriber of one mobile operator ... you could change your SMSC number to one from another mobile operator ... where that other mobile operator's SMSC was not secured ... it would accept and forward all SMS messages that were posted to it, even if there was no billing relationship with the sender.

Needless to say, as SMS evolved into a big money maker for the mobile operators, they closed down this loophole. It took longer in some parts of the world than others ... but in this day and age, I would be very surprised to find such an SMSC number.

-bn
Mat Phillips
New member
Username: Emmjay

Post Number: 2
Registered: 07-2007
Posted on Thursday, July 12, 2007 - 11:55 pm:   

Ahhhh... Thank you for your response, Bryce.

That makes a lot of sense, since the free SMSC numbers were usually international numbers.

So the only reason this is unfeasable is due to physical hardware limitations of the gsm modems? Is there any other hardware you know of that could achieve my objective?

Regards,
Mat Phillips
Bryce Norwood - NowSMS Support
Board Administrator
Username: Bryce

Post Number: 7370
Registered: 10-2002
Posted on Friday, July 13, 2007 - 09:29 pm:   

I haven't seen anything.

Although I do not know for certain, I believe that in order to accept connections as an SMSC like this, you have to be a directly connected node on the SS7 network. I don't think you could be a mobile station.

If you could do it as a mobile station, I figure that I would have heard about a product/solution for doing so, as I'm sure it would be quite popular.

-bn
Mat Phillips
New member
Username: Emmjay

Post Number: 3
Registered: 07-2007
Posted on Saturday, July 14, 2007 - 10:02 pm:   

Ahh... Thank you Bryce.