SMS: Need thoughts + feedback

robmueller · 25th May 2006, 08:44 PM

Hi All

I'm currently grappling a bit with what to do about SMS functionality. Over the last 2 weeks I've learnt an awful lot about the SMS market in general, and want to summarise what I've found and what I'd like to see.

Basically, I see 2 main ways people would use SMS:
1. For notifications of important emails that have arrived (eg send a short email summary to a phone via SMS)
2. As a more convenient way to contact some via SMS than using your phone (eg keyboards are faster to type than phone keypads)

The first is pretty straight forward. The second is a little more complex because usually sending an SMS to someone there's a questions of:
1. Identifying who the SMS came from. (eg setting the "originator" phone number on the SMS)
2. If the recipient replies, where the reply SMS goes to

In the phone world, they're controlled by the same thing, the originator phone number on the SMS. If you can set the originator to be your phone number, that works well, because then the conversation process becomes:
1. You send SMS via web interface/SMTP
2. SMS goes to friends phone. Since originator number is your phone, your phone number is probably in their phones address book, so the SMS shows as coming from you
3. Friend replies to the SMS
4. SMS goes to your phone
5. You read it, and maybe reply again via the web interface/SMTP
6. Repeat

The other alternative is to set the originator to some number we have, so replies come back to us. In that situation, you would have:
1. You send SMS via web interface/SMTP
2. SMS goes to friends phone. Originator appears basically as "unknown" number to them, so maybe you start every SMS with the users name
3. Friend replies to the SMS
4. SMS goes back to us, and we convert it to an email back in your inbox
5. You read it, and maybe reply again via the web interface/SMTP
6. Repeat

This isn't bad either. There is one problem however, If two different FM users send to the same phone, how do we differentiate replies? I think the solution to that is to have a "set" of reply numbers (eg say 5), and keep track of user <-> originator number mappings. In that way, up to 5 different FM users can send to the same number (better, how many different FM users are going to send to the same phone number?). We could keep the mapping for a few weeks before freeing it up again.

So basically in my ideal world, what we'd have is a way to send SMS's:

1. To an arbitrary phone number
2. Basically arbitrary length (there's a way in the SMS protocol for sending multiple messages such that the phone reassembles them into one longer message)
3. With an originator number of any arbitrary phone (so the receiver will see that it came from you, and replies will go to your phone)
4. Or with an originator number so that SMS replies go back to us, then to an email in your inbox

(1) & (2) are pretty straight forward. (3) & (4) are the trickier ones.

(3) is quite doable just about everywhere EXCEPT the US, Canada and China. Most countries allow incoming SMS's with arbitrary originator codes, but the US and Canada have standardised on using what they call "short codes". Basically this means to send to the US or Canada, you MUST lease a short code (at least US$500 per month) and every SMS you send MUST have the short code you purchased as the originator. This totally breaks the: you -> friend -> your phone loop. Basically US/Canada users, your out of luck.

Because of this, the funcationality of SMS usage seems considerably limited to US & Canada users. Additionally, many US & Canada phone companies provide and email address you can email to already that turns the email into an SMS, so the notification funcationality probably isn't required either.

Now (4) is doable in the US & Canada, but unfortunately currently too expensive for us. Basically we'd have to leave at least 3-10 short codes at $500 per month to make this work, which with our volumes would add significant cost overheads.

So as far as I can see then, any SMS functionality we can provide is pretty much useless for US & Canada users. Am I missing something?

I'm not entirely sure of the Chinese situation, but our Chinese user base is pretty limited at the moment, and I imagine will be for the foreseeable future (no plans to translate everything just yet), so lets skip that for now.

For everyone else in the world, (3) and thus the you -> friend -> your phone loop is quite doable, and seems quite useful to me, basically a much more convenient and quicker way to send SMSs. What do people think?

(4) is also possible for most of the rest of the world. For instance as shown here (http://csoft.co.uk/two-way), you can get a UK long number for 10 pounds per month. Again with 5 of these we'd probably be able to handle most you -> friend -> email situations. The one thing is I haven't really seen anyone do this before, and I'm wondering if people would actually find this useful. Thoughts?

Wow, lots of information there. It's be interesting discovering it, but also pretty frustrating as you can well imagine as well. Sometimes you just think "why can't X just work?" Hey, now I bet I know how customers feel about lots of regular stuff in FastMail as well

Rob

Fenman · 25th May 2006, 09:03 PM

Wow! Thanks for all your research, Rob. I went through a similar trawl of options recently when I thought VGS was going but you put it much more clearly.

I write as a 'rest of the world' and as one whose main use is to use the keyboard to text a friend rather than e-mail notification. I'm not a big user, though.

My strong preference would be the 'keyboard to my friend to my 'phone' option with caller ID showing as me. I'd also welcome the option to concatenate messges up to a certain number.

As a side issue, a character counter would be great!

Thanks again for taking this trouble.

woodyuk · 25th May 2006, 10:22 PM

good post. I have been a SMS consultant working around the world for the last five years and you seem to have understood the issues. Just wanted to make a few quick comments to save you some time.

1. The biggest of the "SMS" aggregators out there are Mobile365.com and MBlox.com if you want to send SMS those are the best options IMHO. They might be scary to work with - but they have the best connections. Simplewire is also pretty good for US only traffic. if you want to go a bit cheaper than clickatell.com at a push.

2. You can send SMS via HTTP / SMTP or ideally via SMPP. The reason why I suggest you look at SMPP is that it’s a standard. This is how the SMSC talk to each other. Its also a LOT better at scaling lots of messages! (due to delivery reports needing instant reply) SMPP means you can also move between providers without issue. If you use a custom HTTP / SMTP interface you have to keep rewriting it. Think about having a router that connects to a number of aggregators. Also if an aggregator tries to charge you setup fees, just say the other company is not  Usual game. However expect to buy 50,000 text up front as a sign of good will. Not sure what you backend is written in - but a number of SMPP stacks out there. check out smsforum.org.

3. You are correct about the inbound issue, having 5 numbers (I would suggest about 50) I have done the numbers and you run out quicker than you imagine. However this is how ALL the SMS chat style apps work. Personally I think its a lot of hassle, and the idea of having your mobile number as the originator is a much better solution. Also sending out a text to confirm the number is a good idea. Stops people from faking the originator and doing bad things – bullying etc …

There are lots of other fun and games to find out though, delivery reports are a pain - and something Skype.com are having some fun with :-) Also you will find different networks around the world support from 120chars > 160chars in a SMS. Also some networks allow you to define the originator and others do not.

For a technology that’s all about sending 160charcters of text it’s a complex world. This is due to the technology never being built to do what it is doing today!

hugoheden · 25th May 2006, 11:26 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Fenman
I write as a 'rest of the world' and as one whose main use is to use the keyboard to text a friend rather than e-mail notification.
[....]
As a side issue, a character counter would be great!

Thanks again for taking this trouble.

Agreeing on all of the above: Non-US/Canada user, a lot more interested in the "you->friend-gets-mess-from-regular-number->you"-loop, than the "you->friend-gets-mess-from-weird-special-number->email"-loop.

The point of it all is to be able to use the keyboard.

Abydos · 26th May 2006, 12:19 AM

[quote]Originally posted by robmueller
...4. Or with an originator number so that SMS replies go back to us, then to an email in your inbox

Speaking from the rest of the world, personally I'd love to see the You -> friend -> email option.

The way it works right now is fine but, as it's not a fully integrated 'two way' form of communication, I find it a bit of a novelty: Nicer to use than the phone but a clunky way to get into a conversation.

If you could get the 'reply to email' working, that would be pretty revolutionary for the way some of us use txts. A two way service would instantly make txting WAY more user friendly, encourage users to click reply & increase revenue for FM?

If FM offered it, I'd replace my monthly phone subscription with Pay-as-You go & spend that money saved on two way txting through FM. The FM web interface is nicer than any phone I've ever used.

stuart · 26th May 2006, 03:31 AM

I'm not a cell phone user and am not a fan of SMS, but I know a lot of people who do use it and have occasionally used the service via the web. I can use email to send text messages to the cell phones of my Canadian/US friends, but only if I know what network they're on. Most of the time I don't know the network and would therefore like to be able to email their cell phone number directly and get replies in my FM account, but it sounds like I'm out of luck. However, there are times when I need to text other countries too, so the email>phone>reply-to-email method would be great.

The 160 character limit is a pain, so a counter would really help, as would the function that splits oversize messages into manageable blocks on sending.

hugoheden · 26th May 2006, 06:33 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Abydos

The way it works right now is fine but, as it's not a fully integrated 'two way' form of communication, I find it a bit of a novelty: Nicer to use than the phone but a clunky way to get into a conversation.

If you could get the 'reply to email' working, that would be pretty revolutionary for the way some of us use txts.

I can agree to that.

However: When my friend sends a responding SMS, she (probably) assumes that the message will reach me directly, since I (probably) carry the cell phone at all times. Therefore, I would want her message to actually end up in my cell phone, to avoid confusion (you know -- she gets mad at me for not reresponding promptly) if I am not currently at a computer with an internet connection.

(Typical example-case: I send an SMS via the fastmail.fm interface to my friend just before leaving work, to see if she's available for a coffee. She responds and says yes, and suggests a meeting place. I then don't get her response until it's too late, I am already at home, far out in the suburbs. She gets mad at me, and I feel stupid.)

Edward Velo · 26th May 2006, 08:04 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by robmueller
1. You send SMS via web interface/SMTP
2. SMS goes to friends phone. Since originator number is your phone, your phone number is probably in their phones address book, so the SMS shows as coming from you
3. Friend replies to the SMS
4. SMS goes to your phone
5. You read it, and maybe reply again via the web interface/SMTP
6. Repeat

I prefer the above. Since I send the message, I would like my phone number to appear as the originator.

However, I just wonder how reliable those worldwide SMS messages really are. In the past I used several services, and there always seem to get some messages lost, once in a while...

Edward Velo · 26th May 2006, 08:08 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by hugoheden
[...]she gets mad at me for not reresponding promptly[...]
[...]She gets mad at me, and I feel stupid.[...]

Poor guy. Better to use your phone to send SMS ;-)

pne · 26th May 2006, 03:01 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Fenman
I write as a 'rest of the world' and as one whose main use is to use the keyboard to text a friend rather than e-mail notification. I'm not a big user, though.

My strong preference would be the 'keyboard to my friend to my 'phone' option with caller ID showing as me. I'd also welcome the option to concatenate messges up to a certain number.

As a side issue, a character counter would be great!

I'm on the same side as Fenman and hugoheden on this.

Terry · 26th May 2006, 07:34 PM

Originally posted by robmueller
1. You send SMS via web interface/SMTP
2. SMS goes to friends phone. Since originator number is your phone, your phone number is probably in their phones address book, so the SMS shows as coming from you
3. Friend replies to the SMS
4. SMS goes to your phone
5. You read it, and maybe reply again via the web interface/SMTP
6. Repeat

I would prefer this option because if you send a sms via the web and the mobile is switched off you are sending to then you may have logged off before you get a reply....so I would like the reply to go to my phone....

ewal · 26th May 2006, 08:01 PM

I would love to have a choice as to where incoming sms messages are received - either my phone or my email inbox. And to be able to choose at the time I send my outgoing message. But I guess having such a choice is not easily implemented. Dunno.

Looks like woodyuk above knows what he is speaking about. Hopefully he can help Fastmail in the actual implementation?

Edward

DrStrabismus · 26th May 2006, 11:04 PM

My preference would be "back to the phone" too. The only strong reason for the contrary I can see, is if you live in a reception blackspot.

A pretty good workaround for that would be to have the replies go to the landline, which would likely also be in peoples' phone address books.

Culmore · 27th May 2006, 07:43 PM

hmmm I think I am happy with "back to phone". But the other option seems to have merits also. I would be interested if it was presented as an OPTION. But at I cannot think when I would use it. hmmmm

PS The big reason I do not use SMS more is I WRONGLY thought it was more expensive than my mobile operator. But today I discover that I pay 10pence (UK money - about 18 US cents) per national SMS and 19 pence per international SMS. Which is a MORE then fastmail. So I'll be using fastmail SMS's a lot more now. Funnily enough I am just back from India where it costs about 2 US cents to send a national SMS and 10 cents to send and international SMS (so cheap). Hope this bit is not off topic.

octothorpe · 28th May 2006, 07:05 AM

I've been using SMS for a long time now for notifications on certain e-mails (using sieve filters to forward them to my Verizon e-mail to SMS address (@vtext.com)) This works quite well. I do get bounces periodically (from Verizon's spam filters, i guess), and for some reason they go back to the original sender, who didn't e-mail me @vtext.com and is now rather puzzled at my seemingly byzantine system of e-mail addresses. If there's a way to fix that bounce so it comes back to me only, I'd love to know it.

Anyway, aside from those bounces, it's a great system -- I can log on to the WAP server from my phone if I need to read more of the message than the first 150-odd characters.

To address more directly the original post, I've lately been using a little Google plugin for Firefox which puts a little phone icon in my browser. I just click on it, and can send an SMS, but only if I know the recipient's carrier. I assume Google's using this as a front-end to some kind of e-mail to SMS scheme, and also it makes no reference to sending international SMSes.

Anyway, if I don't know the person's carrier and/or if I don't want to confuse them with a text message from "sms-extension-user@google.com", I just send the message to my own phone, then forward it. I'm paying for an extra received and sent text this way, but it keeps the mobile-to-mobile link intact and anyway, I have a huge bundle of SMS every month. Not sure this helps, but it's a workaround for sending a very quick message or one that has lots of annoying-to-type dates and times and whatnot.

25th May 2006, 08:44 PM	#1
robmueller Intergalactic Postmaster Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 6,098 Representative of: Fastmail.FM	SMS: Need thoughts + feedback Hi All I'm currently grappling a bit with what to do about SMS functionality. Over the last 2 weeks I've learnt an awful lot about the SMS market in general, and want to summarise what I've found and what I'd like to see. Basically, I see 2 main ways people would use SMS: 1. For notifications of important emails that have arrived (eg send a short email summary to a phone via SMS) 2. As a more convenient way to contact some via SMS than using your phone (eg keyboards are faster to type than phone keypads) The first is pretty straight forward. The second is a little more complex because usually sending an SMS to someone there's a questions of: 1. Identifying who the SMS came from. (eg setting the "originator" phone number on the SMS) 2. If the recipient replies, where the reply SMS goes to In the phone world, they're controlled by the same thing, the originator phone number on the SMS. If you can set the originator to be your phone number, that works well, because then the conversation process becomes: 1. You send SMS via web interface/SMTP 2. SMS goes to friends phone. Since originator number is your phone, your phone number is probably in their phones address book, so the SMS shows as coming from you 3. Friend replies to the SMS 4. SMS goes to your phone 5. You read it, and maybe reply again via the web interface/SMTP 6. Repeat The other alternative is to set the originator to some number we have, so replies come back to us. In that situation, you would have: 1. You send SMS via web interface/SMTP 2. SMS goes to friends phone. Originator appears basically as "unknown" number to them, so maybe you start every SMS with the users name 3. Friend replies to the SMS 4. SMS goes back to us, and we convert it to an email back in your inbox 5. You read it, and maybe reply again via the web interface/SMTP 6. Repeat This isn't bad either. There is one problem however, If two different FM users send to the same phone, how do we differentiate replies? I think the solution to that is to have a "set" of reply numbers (eg say 5), and keep track of user <-> originator number mappings. In that way, up to 5 different FM users can send to the same number (better, how many different FM users are going to send to the same phone number?). We could keep the mapping for a few weeks before freeing it up again. So basically in my ideal world, what we'd have is a way to send SMS's: 1. To an arbitrary phone number 2. Basically arbitrary length (there's a way in the SMS protocol for sending multiple messages such that the phone reassembles them into one longer message) 3. With an originator number of any arbitrary phone (so the receiver will see that it came from you, and replies will go to your phone) 4. Or with an originator number so that SMS replies go back to us, then to an email in your inbox (1) & (2) are pretty straight forward. (3) & (4) are the trickier ones. (3) is quite doable just about everywhere EXCEPT the US, Canada and China. Most countries allow incoming SMS's with arbitrary originator codes, but the US and Canada have standardised on using what they call "short codes". Basically this means to send to the US or Canada, you MUST lease a short code (at least US$500 per month) and every SMS you send MUST have the short code you purchased as the originator. This totally breaks the: you -> friend -> your phone loop. Basically US/Canada users, your out of luck. Because of this, the funcationality of SMS usage seems considerably limited to US & Canada users. Additionally, many US & Canada phone companies provide and email address you can email to already that turns the email into an SMS, so the notification funcationality probably isn't required either. Now (4) is doable in the US & Canada, but unfortunately currently too expensive for us. Basically we'd have to leave at least 3-10 short codes at $500 per month to make this work, which with our volumes would add significant cost overheads. So as far as I can see then, any SMS functionality we can provide is pretty much useless for US & Canada users. Am I missing something? I'm not entirely sure of the Chinese situation, but our Chinese user base is pretty limited at the moment, and I imagine will be for the foreseeable future (no plans to translate everything just yet), so lets skip that for now. For everyone else in the world, (3) and thus the you -> friend -> your phone loop is quite doable, and seems quite useful to me, basically a much more convenient and quicker way to send SMSs. What do people think? (4) is also possible for most of the rest of the world. For instance as shown here (http://csoft.co.uk/two-way), you can get a UK long number for 10 pounds per month. Again with 5 of these we'd probably be able to handle most you -> friend -> email situations. The one thing is I haven't really seen anyone do this before, and I'm wondering if people would actually find this useful. Thoughts? Wow, lots of information there. It's be interesting discovering it, but also pretty frustrating as you can well imagine as well. Sometimes you just think "why can't X just work?" Hey, now I bet I know how customers feel about lots of regular stuff in FastMail as well Rob

26th May 2006, 12:19 AM	#5
Abydos Essential Contributor Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: UK Posts: 284	Re: SMS: Need thoughts + feedback [quote]Originally posted by robmueller ...4. Or with an originator number so that SMS replies go back to us, then to an email in your inbox Speaking from the rest of the world, personally I'd love to see the You -> friend -> email option. The way it works right now is fine but, as it's not a fully integrated 'two way' form of communication, I find it a bit of a novelty: Nicer to use than the phone but a clunky way to get into a conversation. If you could get the 'reply to email' working, that would be pretty revolutionary for the way some of us use txts. A two way service would instantly make txting WAY more user friendly, encourage users to click reply & increase revenue for FM? If FM offered it, I'd replace my monthly phone subscription with Pay-as-You go & spend that money saved on two way txting through FM. The FM web interface is nicer than any phone I've ever used.

28th May 2006, 07:05 AM	#15
octothorpe = Permanently banned = Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: New York City Posts: 131	how I use SMS I've been using SMS for a long time now for notifications on certain e-mails (using sieve filters to forward them to my Verizon e-mail to SMS address (@vtext.com)) This works quite well. I do get bounces periodically (from Verizon's spam filters, i guess), and for some reason they go back to the original sender, who didn't e-mail me @vtext.com and is now rather puzzled at my seemingly byzantine system of e-mail addresses. If there's a way to fix that bounce so it comes back to me only, I'd love to know it. Anyway, aside from those bounces, it's a great system -- I can log on to the WAP server from my phone if I need to read more of the message than the first 150-odd characters. To address more directly the original post, I've lately been using a little Google plugin for Firefox which puts a little phone icon in my browser. I just click on it, and can send an SMS, but only if I know the recipient's carrier. I assume Google's using this as a front-end to some kind of e-mail to SMS scheme, and also it makes no reference to sending international SMSes. Anyway, if I don't know the person's carrier and/or if I don't want to confuse them with a text message from "sms-extension-user@google.com", I just send the message to my own phone, then forward it. I'm paying for an extra received and sent text this way, but it keeps the mobile-to-mobile link intact and anyway, I have a huge bundle of SMS every month. Not sure this helps, but it's a workaround for sending a very quick message or one that has lots of annoying-to-type dates and times and whatnot.

25th May 2006, 09:03 PM	#2
Fenman Cornerstone of the Community Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: UK (East Anglia) Posts: 579	Wow! Thanks for all your research, Rob. I went through a similar trawl of options recently when I thought VGS was going but you put it much more clearly. I write as a 'rest of the world' and as one whose main use is to use the keyboard to text a friend rather than e-mail notification. I'm not a big user, though. My strong preference would be the 'keyboard to my friend to my 'phone' option with caller ID showing as me. I'd also welcome the option to concatenate messges up to a certain number. As a side issue, a character counter would be great! Thanks again for taking this trouble.

25th May 2006, 10:22 PM	#3
woodyuk Junior Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 10	good post. I have been a SMS consultant working around the world for the last five years and you seem to have understood the issues. Just wanted to make a few quick comments to save you some time. 1. The biggest of the "SMS" aggregators out there are Mobile365.com and MBlox.com if you want to send SMS those are the best options IMHO. They might be scary to work with - but they have the best connections. Simplewire is also pretty good for US only traffic. if you want to go a bit cheaper than clickatell.com at a push. 2. You can send SMS via HTTP / SMTP or ideally via SMPP. The reason why I suggest you look at SMPP is that it’s a standard. This is how the SMSC talk to each other. Its also a LOT better at scaling lots of messages! (due to delivery reports needing instant reply) SMPP means you can also move between providers without issue. If you use a custom HTTP / SMTP interface you have to keep rewriting it. Think about having a router that connects to a number of aggregators. Also if an aggregator tries to charge you setup fees, just say the other company is not  Usual game. However expect to buy 50,000 text up front as a sign of good will. Not sure what you backend is written in - but a number of SMPP stacks out there. check out smsforum.org. 3. You are correct about the inbound issue, having 5 numbers (I would suggest about 50) I have done the numbers and you run out quicker than you imagine. However this is how ALL the SMS chat style apps work. Personally I think its a lot of hassle, and the idea of having your mobile number as the originator is a much better solution. Also sending out a text to confirm the number is a good idea. Stops people from faking the originator and doing bad things – bullying etc … There are lots of other fun and games to find out though, delivery reports are a pain - and something Skype.com are having some fun with :-) Also you will find different networks around the world support from 120chars > 160chars in a SMS. Also some networks allow you to define the originator and others do not. For a technology that’s all about sending 160charcters of text it’s a complex world. This is due to the technology never being built to do what it is doing today!

26th May 2006, 03:31 AM	#6
stuart Member Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Vancouver, Canada Posts: 56	I'm not a cell phone user and am not a fan of SMS, but I know a lot of people who do use it and have occasionally used the service via the web. I can use email to send text messages to the cell phones of my Canadian/US friends, but only if I know what network they're on. Most of the time I don't know the network and would therefore like to be able to email their cell phone number directly and get replies in my FM account, but it sounds like I'm out of luck. However, there are times when I need to text other countries too, so the email>phone>reply-to-email method would be great. The 160 character limit is a pain, so a counter would really help, as would the function that splits oversize messages into manageable blocks on sending.

26th May 2006, 07:34 PM	#11
Terry Master of the @ Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: A.U Posts: 1,980	Originally posted by robmueller 1. You send SMS via web interface/SMTP 2. SMS goes to friends phone. Since originator number is your phone, your phone number is probably in their phones address book, so the SMS shows as coming from you 3. Friend replies to the SMS 4. SMS goes to your phone 5. You read it, and maybe reply again via the web interface/SMTP 6. Repeat I would prefer this option because if you send a sms via the web and the mobile is switched off you are sending to then you may have logged off before you get a reply....so I would like the reply to go to my phone....

26th May 2006, 08:01 PM	#12
ewal Master of the @ Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: London, UK Posts: 1,257	I would love to have a choice as to where incoming sms messages are received - either my phone or my email inbox. And to be able to choose at the time I send my outgoing message. But I guess having such a choice is not easily implemented. Dunno. Looks like woodyuk above knows what he is speaking about. Hopefully he can help Fastmail in the actual implementation? Edward

26th May 2006, 11:04 PM	#13
DrStrabismus The "e" in e-mail Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 2,713	My preference would be "back to the phone" too. The only strong reason for the contrary I can see, is if you live in a reception blackspot. A pretty good workaround for that would be to have the replies go to the landline, which would likely also be in peoples' phone address books.

27th May 2006, 07:43 PM	#14
Culmore Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Posts: 44	hmmm I think I am happy with "back to phone". But the other option seems to have merits also. I would be interested if it was presented as an OPTION. But at I cannot think when I would use it. hmmmm PS The big reason I do not use SMS more is I WRONGLY thought it was more expensive than my mobile operator. But today I discover that I pay 10pence (UK money - about 18 US cents) per national SMS and 19 pence per international SMS. Which is a MORE then fastmail. So I'll be using fastmail SMS's a lot more now. Funnily enough I am just back from India where it costs about 2 US cents to send a national SMS and 10 cents to send and international SMS (so cheap). Hope this bit is not off topic.