I have founded Nexmo.com, Low Cost SMS API (in private beta), early this year after spending 7 years in the Wholesale SMS industry. Delivering awesome SMS servi

I have founded Nexmo.com, Low Cost SMS API (in private beta), early this year after spending 7 years in the Wholesale SMS industry. Delivering awesome SMS service on a global scale is tricky – but it should not be! We just finalised building our back-end SMS network. Here are some challenges the industry faces: ———————————————————- -Many intermediaries to reach end-users: Between an App and an end-user you can get up to 4 or 5 intermediaries operating their own infrastructure. Adding intermediaries not only increases cost but also exponentially reduces quality – QOS is measured in terms of availability, delivery ratios, speed, features supported, etc… Ask your provider about their sourcing strategy? Who do they buy from? Do they have a strict policy in terms of suppliers’ selection? Can they share delivery ratios? -SLA does not really matter: What if the providers of your provider do not guarantee any SLA? A provider can potentially guarantee an SLA on its own infrastructure but can’t control what happens afterwards. -Non transparent fees: Customers get charged on SMS sent to networks that are not or poorly covered but listed as LIVE in the provider’s reach list – even when you sign a written agreement. -Tricky to reach all Networks: Some networks in the world are tricky to reach and sometimes the only reliable way to deliver SMS is to connect directly. Other are installing SMS filters to cut certain type of traffic (e.g. Spam). For instance, if your provider mentions networks such as Comcell Colombia or IAM in Morocco, you’d rather check again because these networks are impossible to reach with full feature support/reliable service without direct connections. Currently there are at least 26 networks that are tricky to reach and 22 that are filtering. Another rule of thumb is to check whether in Europe their prices are above $0.055, since European Wireless Carriers (also applicable to other regions/countries) require a termination cost for reliable SMS routes. If below that price, it could mean that your provider (or the provider of your provider!) is using unsolicited routes that are not reliable/has limited life time. ——————————————————————————————————— Delivering hassle free (and Low Cost!) global SMS termination is not obvious but we are working on it :) Tony Jamous twitter: @nexmo e-mail: tony.jamous [@] nexmo.com