How to become an SMS service provider

Ozeki SMS Gateway is a perfect platform for SMS service providers. It has a built in SMSC, that makes it possible to sell SMS services for corporate clients and it has advanced interfaces that can be used to create in-house SMS content services such as Voting, Quiz games, etc....

Setting up an IP SMS link

Figure 1. illustrates the most common architecture for SMS service providers. On the diagram, please take a look at the links between the two SMSCs and the Ozeki SMS Gateway. This link is called the IP SMS service provider connection. If you wish to create a professional SMS system, the first thing you should do is to connect your Ozeki SMS Gateway directly to the Short Message Service Centre (SMSC) of one or more GSM Mobile Network operators (or independent SMS Service providers) using an IP SMS connection.

These connection(s) will be used to deliver the messages to the mobile users. IP SMS connections use the Internet to send large volume of messages directory to the SMSC. The connection(s) between your system and the GSM Mobile Network operators will use one of the common IP SMS protocols: SMPP, CIMD2, UCP. The protocol to use depends on the SMSC interface of the Mobile Network Operator. For example, a Nokia SMSC will accept connections over the CIMD2 protocol. Ozeki SMS Gateway supports all of these protocols.

Hint: To be able to setup an IP SMS link, you need to sign an agreement with the Mobile Network operator. To find the appropriate representative at the Mobile Network Operator, you should ask for the person responsible for High Volume SMS messaging.

Hint: Sometimes, the IP SMS connection between your system and the SMSC is protected by a Virtual Private Network (VPN). To setup a VPN you might need a Cisco VPN router.

Creating SMS content services

After the IP SMS link is setup, your system can be used to create SMS content services and SMS applications.

Content services are usually applications that interact with users. In most cases these applications serve mobile users automatically. The mobile users send SMS messages to the system, the application receives these messages, processes them and optionally generates an automatic response. These applications are called data query applications. Other applications can send alerts to mobile users about various events, for example security events, stock market events, credit card transactions. These applications are called notification applications. If you want to run several applications on your system at the same time, you can install a content server to increase performance (Figure 2.). A content server is responsible for routing the incoming and outgoing messages to/from the appropriate application(s) and for maintaining statistics and extracting nice and useful reports for the system administrator.

Hint: The content server functionality is optional.

Serving corporate clients

Ozeki SMS Gateway has a high performance SMSC built in. This enables you to setup SMPP user accounts and to become an SMS service provider. As an SMS service provider, you can accept IP SMS connections initiated by your customers, who want to use your SMS service.

Figure 3 demonstrates, that the built in SMSC enables you to sell SMS services to your customers. Once you have this service in place your customers do not have to buy the SMS service from a GSM Mobile Network Operator, they can buy it from you. Since Mobile Network Operators often react slowly to customer requests and often the connection setup and maintenance costs are high, it can be beneficial for your customers to connect to your service instead of the IP SMS service offered by a Mobile Network Operator. Ozeki SMS Gateway supports billing and accounting, message routing, customer-based logging and advanced user account management to support you in providing SMS service to your corporate clients.

Hint: Corporate clients can connect through the Internet or through a leased line.

Related: