Charging an sms message. How?

[turna]

I couldn’t find a telecoms forum so i think here is the best place to put it.

Does anyone know any reliable companies that can provide me with a premium text/sms number?

I need something similar to 'my text check' the car reg Hpi checker thing that charges you £3 for the text.

When they text me, they are charged a fee, say £1 for arguments sake.

Anyone have any experience with this type of income? How much of a commission is the company likely to want? Will there be a horrendous set up fee?

Any information will be great. Very new to this so all help welcome :)

Thank you.

[Astaroth]

You will find that as there are so many mouths in the food chain the amount you get is relatively small and depends on the network that the receiver of the information is on.

See these guys to give you an idea of the share of the revenue that you would get.

[Json]

Usually the telecoms companies grab about 50% of the end user price as far as I know but you might be lucky and end up with a better deal :)

[rjay]

I realise the share will be about 50%, that's not a problem.

I still haven't found anyone that fulfills the above criteria (TXTLocal don't offer subscriptions).

[andy@telecomhelpcouk]

I'm not sure if this is relevant but have a look at Clickatell (http://www.clickatell.co.uk/).

Andy

[rjay]

Clickatell fulfill the critaria except they only offer a dedicated number rather than the far-cheaper shared number. So the search continues

[Merchant UK]

Clickatell fulfill the critaria except they only offer a dedicated number rather than the far-cheaper shared number. So the search continues

Just read this from the clickatell website :eek:



A minimum of 500 inbound (MO) messages per shortcode or keyword per month will be required before Clickatell will be obligated to pass on premium SMS revenue to you. This will be effective after 90 days. If less than the above number of messages are received the revenue for that month will be forfeit to Clickatell. Prolonged periods of volumes below the indicated thresholds or no activity may result in re-allocation of your shortcode (if owned by Clickatell) or keyword. Revenues will be paid to you after 90 days depending on when the operator pays Clickatell.


Be very care who you chose especially if your just starting to use this type of service, you could be doing it all for nothing ;)

[Abueesa]

I know Encoded (www.encoded.co.uk) used to do reverse charged SMS for a reasonable monthly fee on a shared 5-digit short code. Not sure if they still do it, give them a shout. Commission if I remember correctly was about 50% of the exc. VAT rate, but percentage got higher the higher the charge to the customer.

[garyk]

txtlocal get my vote, good customer service, nice control panel on their site so you can monitor everything.

[rjay]

txtlocal don't offer subscription services ...

[MarcusMiller]

Hey rjay

What you will find is that most of these companies just provide a HTTP gateway interface for you to receive and send the messages. Whatever business logic you have running behind that is your responsibility.

So, you advertise a shortcode + keyword. Message comes in to the telco and they http it across to you. Your business logic then runs behind this and initiates the first outbound message and subscription.

You then have some process that runs every X days / hours / weeks and sends out the billable messages via the gateway.

Reverse billed SMS is a pretty regulated industry now so... you have to play nice!

Marcus