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NowSMS Support Forums ⬆ NowSMS Support - SMS Issues ⬆ Archive through September 15, 2003 ⬆ |
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| Author | Message | |||
| Sopheap |
Hello! I'm a newbie and a VB developer. I'm currently on a project that aim to develop an application that depends mostly on SMS. I have some newbie's questions about NowSMS gateway. 1. Can I setup my own SMSC or MMSC by using NowSMS 2. Could anyone tell me how SMSC and MMSC work? 3. Does NowSMS charge me per message? 3. As in my country, Cambodia, my phone operator charges US$0.03/SMS; it's cheap, can i use NowSMS gateway to send free 2-way SMS via my cellphone? Thanks in advance | |||
| Bryce Norwood - NowSMS Support |
Hi, You can setup your own MMSC, as MMS is built on top of a combination of SMS and WAP technologies. You can't really setup your own SMSC (but most people don't really need their own SMSC ... to actually be a true SMSC you need to have SS7 connectivity into the operator cloud). In your situation, the US$0.03 per SMS charge by your operator sounds like a very good deal. You could connect one or more mobile phones (or dedicated GSM modem devices) to a PC running the NowSMS software, and send/receive SMS messages through the mobile phone. NowSMS doesn't charge per message, it just has capacity limits (per minute or per second) based upon the throughput that it allows. (Typically you're going to see max potential speeds of 6 to 10 messages per minute over a GSM modem, although you can get 30 per minute if your operator supports SMS over GPRS.) Most Nokia or SonyEricsson phones (and other brands as well) can be connected to a PC using a USB or serial cable. Many also support bluetooth or infrared connections. You can use NowSMS to send/receive SMS through a mobile phone, if you have a connection that lets you use the phone as a data modem, and the phone supports sending SMS through an AT command set (some phones support data modem connections, but don't support SMS through an AT command set, like the SonyEricsson P800, T200, or many Motorola phones). There are also dedicated GSM modem devices that provide better reliabilty than using a phone as a modem ... such as the Siemens MC35 or Wavecom Fastrack modems ... or PC card modems like the Nokia D211 or Sierra Wireless Aircards. I realise that I didn't answer all of your questions ... but it would probably take a book to explain how an SMSC or MMSC work.  -bn | |||
| Sopheap |
Hello again Bryce! Thank you very much for your great response. Your answers are very useful for me. Again, as you said, being a true SMSC must have SS7 connectivity into the operator cloud. So, could you explain me just a liitle bit more. I just wonder if i can setup an SMSC and allows my clients to send free SMS to my server pc (connected to NowSMS gateway), and then use the server to forward it to the destination. In short, i want my clients to send SMS to another phone for free. Anyway, Is it cost much to setup an SMSC? Is it possible to use SS7 to connect to Operator cloud without paying anything to the operator? Do i have to be a real expert to setup? And sorry, I'm not understand completely about your price. let say, if i subcribe 12sms/min then i'll pay you $750 every year, every month or else? can i send unlimited numbers of message? I would appreciate your answer. ;-) | |||
| Bryce Norwood - NowSMS Support |
Sopheap, It costs quite a bit to get on the SS7 network. In fact, it's pretty hard to do it unless you have a co-location/cooperative agreement with a mobile operator. (In Europe there are a number of these types of providers who have teamed up with small island telecoms like Jersey Telecom or Manx Telecom in the Isle of Man.) And even when you have that, then you need to negotitate roaming agreements with other operators so that you can deliver messages on to the other networks to which you need to deliver messages. Generally, you're going to have to pay a termination charge to deliver messages on to the destination network. I don't want to discourage you. Search Google on SMS and SS7 (+SS7 +SMS) and you'll find a variety of information out there. In all likelihood, you're going to end up working through an existing service provider, and finding a provider that offers the best price for sending within your part of the world. -bn | |||
| Bryce Norwood - NowSMS Support |
Oh ... I forgot to mention our pricing. We price on gateway throughput. That is to say, how fast messages are routed through the gateway to any connected service providers. The service provider(s) is going to also charge a per message fee. Our pricing is just on the software, and based upon the throughput capacity of the software. It is a one-time fee with one year of support/updates included. Additional years have a 20% annual fee to continue to receive updates. -bn | |||
| bug |
Hi, What I need to do is have a component that I can use to develop an application that SMS sends and receive messages. And stores received messages in a database. I have a GSM modem. Do you have such a component (for windows dev't specificaly vb.net) and how much will it cost me. | |||
| Bryce Norwood - NowSMS Support |
Hi, You interface with our gateway via HTTP. When you want to send a message, you make an HTTP request of the gateway. You can also configure the gateway to call an HTTP script of your choosing when a message is received. The HTTP script runs on a web server of your choice, so you can use any scripting language you like ... interface into a database, etc. -bn | |||
