tegwin
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| posted on 6/2/08 at 09:26 AM |
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Commercial SMS services?
The school I work for want to have an SMS service so they can contact the parents in the unlikley event of an emergency...
I dont like the idea of using one of those commercial companies online, mainly because we simply wont be sending that many messages....
Is it possible to connect a normal mobile phone to a PC and then send messages en-mass from a database on the PC?
[Edited on 6/2/08 by tegwin]
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Pdlewis
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| posted on 6/2/08 at 10:03 AM |
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I know it is easy to do if you can write in .Net and have either a sony or nokia phone but is it much more cost effective to target an online gateway
even if you are only occasionally firing 10 or 20 sms messages out.
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tegwin
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| posted on 6/2/08 at 10:10 AM |
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The problems/conerns we have with online gateways are:
1. The credit usually expires after 90 days, which is not really very good if we only send, say, 1 bulk message to the entire school (1400 people)....
Every year...
2. Im not sure how trustworthy some of the online gateways are....what else will they do with the phone numbers etc?
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Pdlewis
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| posted on 6/2/08 at 10:26 AM |
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The online gateways will be bound by the data protection act and ofcom to hold records of the messages sent and the numbers as are any mobile phone
operators.
Im not sure how the credit works on the systems but this system has inifnate credit and the api can be targeted by either application or web based
systems so should be easy to merge with a database application
http://www.txtlocal.co.uk/sms-api.php
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ChrisW
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| posted on 6/2/08 at 10:46 AM |
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I can offer these services for you, through Netrino (my company, in case you havn't worked that out by now!)
We have two services...
1. Bulk SMS delivery via an aggregator that connects straight to the mobile network backbone. The messages go via a third party operator, but as
mentioned, they are bound by the same data protection regulations as we are - ie that we cannot reuse the numbers or store any personal details to
identify the owner of the number.
2. Sending via regular mobile phone, which is usually used for 'out of band' monitoring - ie a messaging path to/from an system
independant of the Internet which can be used in the event of a routing failure.
Option 1 is most cost effective, I'm sure we can work out a deal based on your likely usage patterns.
Drop me an email - chris at netrino.co.uk - and I'll go through it in more detail.
Cheers, Chris
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onzarob
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| posted on 6/2/08 at 11:40 AM |
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quote:
Originally posted by tegwin
The school I work for want to have an SMS service so they can contact the parents in the unlikley event of an emergency...
[Edited on 6/2/08 by tegwin]
Just an aside and being a parent, I wouldn't want an SMS I would want a call and phone message. SMS in not a guaranteed message delivery system
and your talking about an emergency....just a thought before you go to far 
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tegwin
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| posted on 6/2/08 at 11:57 AM |
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Im just researching the possibilities that management want....its not my decision!
Its impossible to phone every parent of the 1400 students if we have to close the school due to power cut or flooding, so sending a text makes
sence...its better than them getting no message atall!
They would have to agree to recieving sms messages...
It does kind of make some sence I think!
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John.Taylor
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| posted on 6/2/08 at 12:18 PM |
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We use an online texting service called TextAnywhere and they don't make us send a set amount. Couldn't be simpler to set up and they
e-mail a bill every month so no everythings electronic. Can't fault them.
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onzarob
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| posted on 6/2/08 at 12:23 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by tegwin
Im just researching the possibilities that management want....its not my decision!
Its impossible to phone every parent of the 1400 students if we have to close the school due to power cut or flooding, so sending a text makes
sence...its better than them getting no message atall!
They would have to agree to recieving sms messages...
It does kind of make some sense I think!
That make better sense now, I was thinking if it was a specific child emergency rather than a blanket issue.
Still SMS doesn't confirm it been received which can pose problems.
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tegwin
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| posted on 6/2/08 at 12:38 PM |
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Yeah, i agree confirmation of receipt is an issue...but its not my problem...the senior management can deal with that one
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