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rafael
New member
Username: Solovat

Post Number: 1
Registered: 06-2004
Posted on Wednesday, June 02, 2004 - 03:25 am:   

Guys, I have read these topics for a while and got a question:
i would like to create a site similar to www.mobog.com. Everytime when a new user wants to create a new account there, he/she needs to send a picture to emailaddress on this site.
Then a sms message is sent back to the camera phone with actiovation code. So my question is if this works via email, why do I need to have SMS service provider?
I think they have 3-5 sms messages every second.
Any advice would be appreciated.
thanks,
rafael soultanov
www.solovatsoft.com
karen
Unregistered guest
Posted on Friday, June 04, 2004 - 09:11 am:   

ya...i think this is something interesting, any one can provide idea?
Bryce Norwood - NowSMS Support
Board Administrator
Username: Bryce

Post Number: 2675
Registered: 10-2002
Posted on Friday, June 04, 2004 - 03:27 pm:   

I've seen a few sites like that.

Mobog actually seems to do everything via e-mail, so it's pretty much geared toward the US market.

The way that users are billed for SMS and MMS messages is different in the US from the way that it works in most of the world.

In most of the world, when an SMS or MMS message is sent, only the sender of the message is charged. The receiver of the SMS or MMS message is not charged (except that with some mobile operators, the user is charged for GPRS data activity related to the retrieval of the MMS message).

In the US, both sender and receiver pay. Because the receiver is also charged to receive an SMS or MMS message, many mobile operators allow these messages to be sent via e-mail (sending to phonenumber@some-operator-specific-domain). In this case, the e-mail sender is not charged, but the recipient is still charged for receiving the message.

The Mobog web site simply receives messages from an e-mail address, and it replies back to that e-mail address.

That works fine in the US.

Outside of the US, many operators allow you to send MMS to an e-mail address. But they do not allow replies because they only charge message senders, not recipients. Therefore, they do not allow e-mail to MMS (or SMS).

As far as I can see, Mobog is just using this e-mail interface.

As far as these types of sites go, www.textamerica.com is another interesting site. They do it all through e-mail too ... but they allow you to register on-line via the web site. Then they give you a special e-mail address to send your pictures to ... so they do not send any activation codes back via SMS or MMS, which allows their site to work with users outside of the US.

-bn
rafael
New member
Username: Solovat

Post Number: 2
Registered: 06-2004
Posted on Friday, June 11, 2004 - 03:43 am:   

Thanks, I agree in that, to implement the same around the world It seems I would need to use payable SMS service providers. Am I correct?
Bryce Norwood - NowSMS Support
Board Administrator
Username: Bryce

Post Number: 2812
Registered: 10-2002
Posted on Friday, June 11, 2004 - 07:52 pm:   

Rafael,

To do it just like Mobog, yes. But for this same functionality, TextAmerica doesn't actually send anything back to your phone, so it does not require a provider for its "moblog" service.

-bn