Guide to interactive using SMS

Beginners guide to interactive campaigns using SMS
At the recent launch meeting of MEGA 2008 in Sydney, a lot of people from various backgrounds turned out to see if they could make it big in the mobile industry space. A unique thing about this event was that the people who turned up were from various backgrounds from artistic, creative, digital production and mobile technology and it was great to hear a different perspective from each person.
Too much Jargon
But what it made me realise was that sometimes as technologists we tend to assume that everyone getting into this space understands the technical terms and lingo behind the technology used in this space. Now I suspect that this is not the case, so I have decided to write this article to explain some of the common terms and jargon used.
SMS hasnt gone away you know
Last start with SMS. OK, I agree that SMS may not be as cool or sexy as the iPhone or Java apps or mobile TV, etc. But I still think SMS has a long way to go before it looses it position as the most popular service on mobile. In fact, I challenge you to think of any interactive mobile service that doesnt have some aspect of SMS involved.
Mobile Marketing via SMS has expanded rapidly in Europe and Asia as a new channel to reach the consumer. SMS initially received negative media coverage in many parts of Europe for being a new form of spam as some advertisers purchased lists and sent unsolicited content to consumer's phones; however, as guidelines are put in place by the mobile operators, SMS has become the most popular branch of the Mobile Marketing industry with several 100 million advertising SMS sent out every month in Europe alone.
According to the industry evangelist Tomi T. Ahonen and covered excellently in Holly's meganode blog entry
"SMS text messaging is addictive, it will still grow to be FAR greater than it is today. The world
leaders are the Philippines where 15 SMS are sent per person per day on average. In Singapore
12 and Korea 10. The world average is 2.6. The Americans are at 1 per day. SMS will more than
double in the next five years and shows like Pop Idol and Big Brother will soon earn billions
out of SMS interactivity."
- Tomi T. Ahonen

Examples of interactive SMS services

Here are just some examples of interactive SMS services. There are hundreds of uses of SMS and I am pretty sure that we will see more creative uses of SMS in the future that no-one ever predicted.
* Competitions and votings initiated by TV and radio shows
* Product feedbacks, campaigns and promotions (number printed on any product package)
* Globally available number for international companies and events
* Reception of SMS for companies wishing to interact with consumers
* Reply path to online tools, software packages, etc.
* 2-way communication with service engineers, sales forces and suppliers
* Reception of SMS to be forwarded to computer or user account
* SMS-to-email applications
* SMS Chat services
* Feedback SMS for mass mailings or promotional activities
SMS Jargon unmasked
Its only 160 characters but the art of sending SMS has got some incredibly complex terminology and lingo. I will try to give you a "plain-mans" version.
Mobile Originated / Mobile Terminated
You will often hear the words Mobile Originated (MO) or Mobile Terminated (MT). These terms are used to differentiate between SMS that are sent by the mobile user (i.e. Mobile Originated) or sent by the Content Provider (Mobile Terminated).
Premium SMS
Reverse SMS billing or premium SMS service means that the user of the recipient mobile rather than the message sender is charged for the cost of the SMS message received. It is also called MT (Mobile Terminated) Billing. Reverse-billed SMS messages should only sent if specifically requested by the mobile user. A daily weather alert is an example of a service where regular reverse-billed messages are received. In some countries, providers are required by law or regulation to provide a means of opting out of a service once it has been commenced. Most typically, this is achieved by sending a stop message (most typically, simply STOP) to the same number as the service itself.
Short Codes
One term you cant get away from is the term 'shortcode'. A Mobile originated premium-rated services such as televoting will need a shortcode. The Content Provider providing the service obtains a Short Code from the network operator, and subscribers send texts to that number.
Subscribers are charged a premium for the sending of such messages, with the revenue typically shared between the network operator and the Content Provider. Limitations of short codes include the limitation to national borders (short codes have to be activated in each country where the campaign takes place), as well as being expensive to sign up together with mobile operators.


In Australia, a short code is either 6 or 8 digits starting with 19. The 195 and 196 range have been reserved for Adult content. The payouts to the Content Providers vary by operator and the percentages paid are greatest on the highest priced premium SMS services. Most Content Providers should expect to pay about 45% of the cost of the premium SMS up front to the operator.
Long Codes
An alternative to inbound SMS is based on Long numbers (international number format, e.g. +61430354330), which can be used in place of short codes for SMS reception in several applications, such as TV voting, product promotions and campaigns. Long numbers are internationally available, as well as enabling businesses to have their own number, rather than short codes which are usually shared across a lot of brands. Additionally, Long numbers are non-premium inbound numbers.
Adult Content
Strictly speaking, only content that is deemed to be a classification below MA15+ is allowed to be sent using normal premium shortcodes. Any content MA15+ and above must be sent using shortcodes in the 195 and 196 range. Adult services on 195 and 196 shortcode ranges are only just starting to be rolled out as some of the main operators in Australia have implemented age restricted services. Age restricted services work by the operator blocking people from using the 195 and 196 shortcode ranges unless they have previously consented and proved that they are over the legal age to receive adult content.
SMS Gateway Providers
If you are going to start using SMS for interactive services, you will most likely want to work with an SMS gateway provider. These can facilitate the SMS traffic between you and the end user and typically work as an SMS aggregator. The aggregator model is based on multiple agreements with mobile operators to exchange 2-way SMS traffic into and out of the operator's SMS platform (Short Message Service Centre - SMS-C). SMS Gateway providers can assist you in setting up shortcodes and also can take care of sharing revenue with you. Typically they will collect the revenues from the operators and after taking their cut will pass on a revenue share portion to you.
Bulk SMS
Another benefit of using an SMS gateway provider is that they can offer you excellent rates for sending SMS to your users (i.e. non-premium SMS). These are the type of SMS that you could use to send promotional information or alerts to the end users. You will get a major discount on SMS rates if you buy in BULK hence the name Bulk SMS.
Physically Sending and Receiving SMS
Assuming you are using an SMS gateway provider, you can typically send SMS from your external application using a simple API (HTTP or Web services) or else the provider may provide some simple tools as part of their portal (e.g. email to sms, web form). Heres a list of ways to send SMS:
1. Email2SMS: Normally your SMS provider provides an email to sms gateway and by simplifying sending an email to an email address (e.g. mobilenumber@provider.com) you can send an SMS to an end user.
2. SMSWebFrom: Another feature typically provided by an SMS gateway provider is a web form where you can send SMS from a webpage.
3. SMSAPI: Most SMS Gateway providers will also provide some sort of API (Application Programmers Interface) that will allow you to develop external applications on your web servers that can send SMS using the API. The API could either by a web service or a http get/post type service.
And to receive SMS, you will normally have to tell your SMS Gateway provider how to handle an SMS when it is received. A few options that your SMS Gateway may provide could be :
1. send the SMS as a HTTP get/post to an external application. Which means an external servers webpage gets called with some parameters that indicate the sender and the message text
2. automatically return an SMS. Which means that you pre-configure your SMS gateway to handle an SMS and return a response SMS.
Conclusion
I hope in some way I have helped demystify the lingo and technical jargon behind SMS. Armed with these terms, I hope that you can now start engaging in meaningful discussions with your clients and start talking business with the SMS gateway providers with confidence.
The author of this article (Ivo Brett) is the founder of me2mobile.com which is a self-service
SMS gateway that allows you to create interactive SMS services in less than 5-minutes.