SMS Services

SMS (short message service) is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet, and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols to enable mobile devices to exchange short text messages.

Overview

Our SMS platform or gateway enables organizations to send and recieve messages to and from subcribers. We have solutions that are developed to cater for your needs be it running subscription based services, sending alerts to your clientele or just sending transactional messages. We have custom based API's that you can intergrate with your plaftorms to deploy these services

Our SMS platform also gives convenience by providing a web based user interface that helps clients manage their SMS services

Premium Rated Services

There are three types of services deployed: Bulk SMS, On-Demand and Subscription services. These services are premium rated services which means they incur a cost.

Bulk SMS Service:- This service enables the delivery of messages to multiple users. The messages are in textual format and set to a minimum of 160 characters per message. Communication is one way.

On Demand Service:- On demand service is a two way communication based service. Users are able to send a request to a short code and receive a response. The request can be inform of a blank message or a keyword. E.g. “LOVE to 12345” The keyword enables the system determine which service to run because a single short code can run multiple services. E.g. “REGISTER John Doe to 12345” is a service that will register users while “STATUS to 12345” will check the status of their account i.e. active or in active.

Subscription Service:- Just like an on demand service the communication is two way. The difference lies in where the mobile subscriber sends a request once to start receiving content and once to stop receiving content. Upon subscription mobile users will receive content on a regular basis.

Uses of SMS

Mass SMS advertising

Sending notifications

Alerts & Reminders

Safety checks (password confirmation)

Product information

Entertainment (competitions)

SMS newsletters

All sorts of different text messages

Users of SMS Services

Consumer brands

Banks

Media outlets

Major airlines

Consumer brands

Travel agencies

Healthcare providers

Large consumer websites

Short Codes

An SMS short code is a 5-6 digit phone number that is used by businesses to opt-in consumers to their SMS programs, and then used to send text message coupons, offers, promotions, etc. to those customers that had previously opted-in.

A consumer interacts with an SMS short code by composing a new text message on their mobile device, and addressing it to the businesses 5-6 digit SMS short code. For example, the SMS short code used by a business could be 27501.

SMS Keywords

When a customer wants to opt-in to an SMS campaign, they’ll not only need to know the SMS short code, but they’ll also need to know the SMS keyword for that specific business

Dedicated SMS Short Codes

There are two different types of SMS short codes. In the example of the short code above 27501 this SMS short code is called a “Dedicated Short Code”, which means that it will only be used by one business. This means that no other business can operate on this SMS short code number, because it’s dedicated to that specific business.

Shared SMS Short Codes

The second type of SMS short code is called a “Shared Short Code”, which means that it’s used by many different businesses. In the case of a shared short code, each business sharing a short code would be assigned a unique SMS keyword, which helps an SMS provider like Frontier determine which SMS campaign a consumer is trying to opt-in to

For example, lets say there’s a sushi restaurant, and a kids clothing store both using the same shared SMS short code. If people wanted to opt-in to receive SMS messages from the sushi restaurant, they’d text the sushi restaurant’s SMS keyword “SUSHI” to the shared SMS short code, while people that wanted to opt-in to receive SMS messages from the kids clothing store would text the retailer’s SMS keyword “KIDS” to the shared short code.