I´ve been working on one of our ongoing projects today – a text messaging and email reminder system.
I was looking into ways of reducing the costs of sending the text messages. Turns out that there are three main ways of doing this so I thought I´d post the results here in case anyone else needs to do it.
1) Use a mobile. You can hook a mobile up to a web server and let it send the messages for you. Problem is it can only send a few per minute and costs the same as you would pay if it was a normal mobile
2) Use an SMS Gateway. These are ace! Hook it up and start sending cheap texts by the bucket load. Problem is they cost thousands!
3) Use an online service. If you get a reliable service then they are fast, cheap and fairly easy to implement.
Looks like I´m sticking with option 3 for the moment. I´ll keep you posted as the project progresses
I'm a web developer based in the East Midlands, UK and if I keep up the current rate, I might have developed 3 million sites by the time I retire
I’ve found that use of an SMS online service has allowed me to maintain better contact with my team, from my desk top and the charges are reasonsable for that effect. Be interested in future developments.