| Questions on sending/and cost of MMS in the UK. |  Search
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NowSMS Support Forums ⬆ MMS & SMS Technical Discussions (unsupported) ⬆ Archive through October 29, 2003 ⬆ |
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| Author | Message | |||
| John Allen |
I wish to set up a app using nowsms to send mms messages out to phones in the uk. Ive read teh forums for a few hours to try and get a footing (am completly ignorant concerning 2.5g tech e.t.c.) but still have a few qs i hope someone can help me out on. As far as i can work out theres a few ways of sending mms: with a phone and gsm modem, using a net MMS service provider or connecting to my networks MMSC over the net using the settings they give me for my phone. am i right so far? now cost is definatly a issue, and using a phone with gsm modem and connecting to teh networks MMSC seems expensive at 30p a pop, ive read in this forum its poss to send MMS txts using GPRS but ive read on oranges site that you still get billed per message, and i guess this is the same with other UK networks. Does anyone know anymore info to help me out as im still trying to put everything together in my mind? This leaves teh MMS service provider option, and as far from my search on google tells me these dont exist only SMS service providers, if im not searching correctly could someone point me in the right direction? Thanks john | |||
| Kent Williams |
John, For starters, see this thread for a basic technical overview of how MMS works: http://support.nowsms.com/discus/messages/12/196.html Then, I'll explain the options for how to send MMS messages using our product. The Now SMS/MMS Gateway provides two basic methods for sending out MMS messages (well, in the beta version 5.0, this is true, in the current production 4.x version, only the first approach is supported). 1.) NowSMS is the MMSC. NowSMS delivers the MMS notification over SMS, and the recipient device fetches the MMS content from the Now SMS/MMS Gateway directly. Here your cost is the cost of sending out 2 SMS messages (with some optimisation, you can often get it down to a single SMS message). 2.) The message is routed to an operator (or conceivably an aggregator) MMSC for delivery. For NowSMS, this feature is new in the v5.0 beta release (http://www.nowsms.com/beta5). NowSMS v5.0 supports the following MMS protocols for connecting to an operator MMSC: MM7 (XML/SOAP over HTTP POST), MM4 (SMTP-based), MM1 (binary HTTP post, the protocol used for phone to phone MMS), or EAIF (Nokia proprietary variation of MM1). In the MM1 interface, there is an option where NowSMS can use a GSM/GPRS modem to submit the message to the operator MMSC so that a special account is not required (looks just like the MMS client in a mobile phone). In approach #2, your charges are whatever your operator charges for sending an MMS, either through a special account with the operator (MM7, MM4, EAIF), or the regular phone MMS charge (MM1 over GPRS/GSM modem). With either approach, the delivery of the MMS still works as described in the link above. The difference is that some operators pre-configure MMS settings on the mobile phones in such a way that the phones can only receive MMS messages from the operator MMSC, in which case approach #1 is not viable unless you can change the settings in the recipient mobile phone(s). In the UK, Vodafone and O2 operate open MMS configurations, and approach #1 will work. The Orange MMS configuration is closed, and the only way to post an MMS to an Orange phone is: a.) have the setting changed on the phone to settings that allow message retrieval from external MMSCs; or b.) submit the MMS message through an MMSC that is connected into the Orange network (either direct through Orange, or through an operator or other party that has an interconnect agreement with Orange). - Kent Williams Now SMS/MMS Gateway Support | |||
| John Allen |
Kent, Thanks for your reply it answered alot of my questions. Approach #1 definatly sounds for what im looking for, does nowsms support using this approach using a web sms provider, that is sending a http post with the mms notification message in? Or will i need to do this with a app i create myself? Thanks alot john | |||
| Bryce Norwood - NowSMS Support |
John, As long as the provider allows the submission of binary format SMS messages via an HTTP GET, then it is fine. Do you have docs on the HTTP format used by the provider? -bn | |||
| John Allen |
Bryce, Thanks for your response. I checked out the docs of a certain provider (haven't signed up to anything yet) and they do provide submission via http get and i belive binary. How i wish to set teh system up is basically have a short code reverse billing number,using nowsms to send sms mms notification messages thru a sms service provider (to take advantage of cheaper sms rates). I also want to be able to recieve MMS messages from the users aswell, and have nowsms process these...now that most operators in the uk are using open MMSC's that shouldnt be a problem should it? | |||
| Bryce Norwood - NowSMS Support |
Receiving MMS addressed to a phone number is still a bit of a challenge. While O2 and Vodafone have openness on their MMS GPRS settings ... connecting to their MMSC to retrieve content is another story. That needs to happen over GPRS. We added a lot of new features in the v5.0 release that is currently in beta (see http://www.nowsms.com/beta5) to deal with this. Basically, when the MMS notification comes in over SMS, the v5.0 version of NowSMS can initiate a GPRS connection over a GPRS modem to retrieve the message from the MMSC. As all of the operators in the UK have MMS interoperability with each other, you only need an inbound number on one of the providers. Orange doesn't charge for GPRS access on their MMS APN, so it can be a good choice for that purpose. (Of course, you might be receiving on a GSM/GPRS modem, but sending out through a provider account.) -bn | |||
| John Allen |
Bryce, Thanks for all your advise its really helped me getting to understand all the different ways of sending/recieving mms. So basically ill be hopefully sending thru a sms provider taking advantage of bulk sms and then recieving the users reply sms notification thru them with nowsms and then nowsms uses a gsm modem to retrive the actual msg right? Now if thats correct i have only one problem,reverse billing and short codes for the service but from what ive seen on all the sms providers sites they are basically ripping people off. Ive seen everything from £500 p/m to £2000 p/m, £1000 set up fees (hahaha!) fees for this fees for that...seems pretty fishy to me. Is there any way round this? I want to provide a useful cheap service to people not rip them off. Do the networks deal with the little man direct? If they do how do you set this up to deal with the sms service provider ie i rent the short codes direct (which is hopefully cheaper) but they still go thru a sms provider (cheap sms messages) Sorry this is going off topic now and i know you dont support this, but im unable to find any other resources. Thanks john | |||
| Bryce Norwood - NowSMS Support |
John, When it comes to premium SMS, you typically have to send quite a few messages to break-even between setup fees and monthly fees. Create yourself an account on O2's developer site ... http://www.sourceo2.com ... I didn't check just now, but several months ago I remember that they did have a link to their prices for premium SMS. Generally, the prices give the greatest breaks to those who send the most messages, so you have aggregators that buy in bulk to give smaller guys a better deal than they would get from the operator directly. Another factor in pricing is the charge for your premium SMS. The higher the charge, the smaller the % that the operator takes. Hopefully the O2 price list is still up on SourceO2 ... I think that would be useful for you for comparison purposes. -bn | |||
