DevBlog

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We have a new Australian Long Number which we are providing shared access to. This number is much easier to remember (0448 222 777) and should go a long way in helping secure the participation of mobile users in your interactive applications.

We have also introduced a new German Long Number with shared access (0177 178 4108) and have added dedicated German numbers to our portfolio of receiving numbers.

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Customers will be happy to know that our much anticipated US PSMS program is about to go live.

Whilst our program has been certified by almost all US Carriers, T-Mobile is currently suffering from a back log of around 25 days which is effecting all service providers.

Initially, our PSMS program will be based on one-time events on the following price points:

• $0.50
• $0.50
• $0.75
• $0.99
• $1.49
• $1.99

Although PSMS reporting facilities will only be available on our new site (which is due to go live in June), customers that would like to start using the service from now should contact us through the Contact Centre

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Developers should be aware that API-Client Routines now include three new parameters with all requests.

Any questions or feedback should be directed to our Technical Staff.

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We are now offering the ability to receive mobile originated SMS through 10 digit long numbers based in Ireland.

These are based on the Orange network and benefit from the international roaming agreements that Orange has with other network operators around the world. Irish mobile users can reach them through their local format (e.g. 0871234567), whilst mobile users outside of Ireland address them in their full MSISDN format (i.e. +353871234567).

We are happy to be one of very few companies able to offer such numbers and are leasing them at an annual cost of £399.00 (dedicated) and £39.00 (shared).

Customers who wish to set up demo keywords for testing purposes may contact Sales & Administration at any time.

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We have added a new routine to the TM4B SMS API v2.1 through which the availability of keywords can be checked on all the receiving numbers with which we provide shared access.

This addition has been made to coincide with the discount system added to dedicated keywords on our UK Short Code and will allow companies with messaging platforms that base themselves on that of TM4B to allow their customers to query the availability of their own desired keywords.

The name of the routine is "Check_Keyword" and its specifications can be found here.

Meanwhile, we are in the process of developing v2.2 of the TM4B SMS API and would kindly request customers to forward us their "wish lists" for additions and modifications to the existing SMS API. We would also like developers to know that we are looking to provide more comprehensive support for 3rd party integration and are welcoming any suggestions in that regard.

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Customers using our USA Direct messaging route should know that, in order to keep all subscription services 100% carrier compliant, we will be unsubscribing all mobile numbers which have been disconnected from their respective network operators.

Network operators recycle their numbers on a frequent basis and, obviously, they want to ensure that a user who is given a recycled number is not inadvertently subscribed to a service which they know nothing about. They therefore maintain a strict policy in this regard and any short code program which fails to comply with this request will be terminated by the relevant operator.

It even makes sense to a content provider that its messages should not (wastefully) be delivered to a number that has been disconnected or to someone that did not request them and unsubsribing such numbers ensures that this does not take place.

From a technical perspective, whenever such unsubscriptions take place, content providers will be notified in the same way as an "opt out" (according to their settings) and their subscription logs will contain the descriptive explanation.

We wish our USA Direct customers the best success with their subscription services and we are happy to have taken away most of the responsibility which carrier compliance entails.

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We are very happy to announce that we will soon be offering the ability to receive mobile originated SMS through long numbers based in France.

These are 11 digit numbers (e.g. 06123456789) based on the Orange network and provide several benefits over French Short Codes:

1. The sender's MSISDN is known and not masked by the network operators.
2. These numbers benefit from the international roaming agreements that Orange has with other network operators and can be accessed from outside France in their MSISDN format (i.e. +336123456789).
3. The red tape surrounding these numbers is much lower.
4. A dedicated number can be set up within 2 - 3 working days.

These numbers will be available from Monday 18th Septmber at an annual rate of €699.99 EUR for dedicated numbers and €59.99 EUR for dedicated keywords on shared numbers.

However, customers placing their orders before Friday 15th September will be able to enjoy a discount of €100.00 EUR bringing this cost down to €599.99 EUR and such purchases can take place at any time through the online "Sales" section.

For further information about these numbers or to have a temporary keyword set-up for testing purposes, please contact Sales & Administration.

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We have added a new API-Client routine to our SMS API which extends our LowBal Notification system so that remote client applications can be notified when an account's credit balance drops down to/below a pre-specified level.

Although we provide two other methods of knowing an account's balance programmatically, these have either been mis-used, out of customer's reach or inadequate for certain needs:

1. The existing Client-API check_balance routines can be used to query an account's balance. However, having found that some customers query their balance every minute of every day.
2. In response, as part of SMS API v2.1, we added the new balance as part of our response to the broadcast routine. However, upgrading to v2.1 is voluntary and, even then, there are occassions when customers connect from different servers and this information may not always be useful when found by one of them

Our assumption in querying an account's balance is to know whether it has dropped down to a certain level and this task is already fulfilled by the LowBal Notification system. As such, we hope that this addittion to our SMS API will make things easier for our customers.

The details of the new routine can be found here and any comments/bugs should be forwarded to Technical Support.

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To help customers ensure that they do not suffer from loss of service upon the completion of a product's service period, we have added an additional page to SMS Online which shows all of an account's products & services which are limited by expiry dates.

The page, which forms part of the newly created 'Sales' section, includes description of the relevant products & services along with the date upon which they are due to expire and the number of days left until they expire.

Although we do send two reminder emails on the approach of an impending expiry, this page will help customers plan forward in case they are unavailable during that time.

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We are happy to announce that our shared program using the short code 70589 has gone live, providing organisations with an opportunity to provide mobile messaging services in the US without investing the time and money required by dedicated short code programs. Using the 70589 program, subscription services will cost only $49/year and keywords for one-time events will cost only $499/year, both of which can be provisioned immediately.

Although we will be doing our best over the next two weeks to provide detailed information surrounding mobile messaging in the US market along with the detailed information about the different options available, we have put together a very short document which briefly outlines mobile messaging in the USA.

During this time, any enquiries should be submitted through our Contact Centre and we will endeavour to respond as fast as we can.

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Although we are always ready to provide customer support as quickly as possible, we recommend customers to use the Knowledge Base as the first point of reference as it can easily provide an immediate resolution to most issues.

And so, to help customers find the information that they're looking for in a fast and efficient manner, an advanced search facility has been added which retrieves relevant results in the fastest possible time.

Although search criteria can be modified by visiting the search page itself, a search box has been added to the top-right hand section of the entire HelpDesk for easy access.

Customers that experience any errors using the facility, receive results that are not relevant or would simply like to see an improvement should let us know through the Contact Centre.

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Customers will be happy to know that we are now providing incoming numbers based in Australia. These are 'long' numbers based on the Telstra network, which means they can be reached by mobile users from around the world - those outside of Australia would include the dialling code for Australia whilst, for local users, it would be in its local form.

Receiving SMS on these numbers is completely free and the annual costs are:

• £49.00 for a dedicated keyword on a shared number.
• £449.00 for a randomly chosen dedicated number.
• £889.00 for a vanity-style dedicated number.

Dedicated keywords can be provisioned immediately (see this tutorial) and dedicated numbers require 1 - 3 working days (see this tutorial).

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Following the introduction of Unicode messaging and the ability to fix the Expiry Date & Time of MT SMS, the Email-to-SMS facility now provides support for both of these features.

Unlike our SMS API or Web-to-SMS, the expiry date & time in Email-to-SMS messages is provide as hours and minutes (e.g. 1h55 - 1 hour and 55 minutes). This is in line with the intended use of the Email-to-SMS service, i.e. to provide desk staff with the simplest method of sending SMS.

Support for Unicode messaging now means that customers speaking different languages from all over the world can now use their email clients to send SMS in their own languages. No extra steps are required... when a UTF-8 email is received, it is treated as a Unicode message.

We would also like to remind Email-to-SMS users that, whilst it will always be possible to send one message to multiple recipients, it is no longer possible to send multiple messages to multiple recipients. This was announced on 27 May 2006 and has taken effect today.

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Customers wishing to deliver more than textual information will be happy to know that we have, as of today, introduced technical provision for 8-bit Binary SMS.

Unlike plain text and Unicode, the use of binary data requires the use of external specifications (such as that belonging to Nokia's Smart Messaging and EMS) and so, whilst we will do our best to provide a detailed section within our Knowledge Base, we will not be providing technical support for issues that relate to coding/encoding etc.

Sending binary SMS has been made very simple and can take place through the most recent release of our SMS API (v2.1) and the Web-to-SMS facility of SMS Online.

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1. SMS API v2.1 has been released today in 'beta', providing support for a host of improved functionality that has been introduced in recent times. Its stability is of a sufficient level to make its release public, but we are keeping it in 'beta' to provide customers with an opportunity to give their feedback.
   
   Although SMS API v2.0 will remain in service for the foreseeable future, we recommend customers to upgrade to SMS API 2.1 in order to benefit from all the new developments which can be viewed here in the Knowledge Base.
2. The PDF version of the SMS API Technical Manual has been discontinued in favour of a dedicated section within the Knowledge Base. This, we hope, will allow us to provide other useful resources within a single environment, including responses to customer queries.
3. As outlined at the beginning of June, we have discontinued the use of the HTTP POST method on all of our Client-API routines.

Any questions/feedback relating to these changes should be forwarded to Technical Support and the subject title "SMS API 2.1" should be used for those that relate to it.

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We have, as of yesterday, begun the successful implementation of Unicode messaging which enables transmission of text and symbols from all of the world's writing systems via SMS.

This means that we can now support all of the world's living languages including, for example, Arabic, Chinese & Greek. Customers should be aware, however, that a maximum length of 70 characters applies to Unicode messages, as opposed to 160 characters for plain text messages.

The implementation of Unicode messaging has begun with the Web-to-SMS facility and will next be included in SMS API v2.1 which is due for release this month.

Customers wanting to learn more about Unicode should begin with Wikipedia followed by the Unicode Consortium website.

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Our messaging platform now facilitates long messaging in a total of 4 different ways and have already been made available to both Email-to-SMS and Web-to-SMS messages.

The first, and more important, of the new methods is 'concatenation'. This instructs receiving handsets to re-assemble long messages programmatically and has been released to coincide with the implementation of Unicode as a key to overcoming the length restriction from which it suffers.

The second is the 'three dots' method whihc adds an ellipsis to the end of each (except the last) SMS to signify that the message is 'to be continued'.

Furthermore, each of the four methods can now be implemented on a 'strict' or 'graceful' basis, with the latter ensuring that individual words are not split between SMS.

The settings for customers who previously used 'SMS Numbering' have been maintained and the Knowledge Base has been expanded to include a dedicated section belonging to Long Messaging.

Any questions relating to its implementation should be forwarded to our technical staff.

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The nature of SMS delivery between network operators and mobile devices is such that a store-and-forward methodology is used. Part of this methodology involves holding on to SMS that can't be delivered (most commonly due to the receiving handset being inactive) and re-attempting delivery repeatedly for the duration of the message's life (also known as its 'validity period').

Previously, when submitting SMS to the network operators, we have always set the validity period to the maximum possible (i.e. 3 days) to give receiving handsets the maximum opportunity to receive the messages that we transmit.

However, feedback from our customers has suggested that the ability to set a validity period that is less than the maximum would be very useful for certain occasions:

• To prevent the possibility of messages being delivered during anti-sociable hours.
• To promote events or offers that also have their own validity periods.

• To keep words such as 'today' and 'tomorrow' within context.

We have therefore begun to provide our customers with the ability to set the validity period of their MT SMS under the (more easily-understood) label of 'Expiration Date/Time'.

At present, this ability is only available for messages being submitted through SMS Online's Web-to-SMS facility, but will also become available in SMS API v2.1 which is soon to be released.

The Knowledge Base has been expanded to include a section dedicated to the Expiration Date/Time and any questions should be directed through our Contact Centre.

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To simplify the development of dynamic two-way applications, the SMS Auto-Responder can now be used to return content generated from a remote web-server.

Prior to this addition, the essence of interactive applications has been restricted to the combination of API-Client and Client-API interactions. And, whilst we still recommend experienced developers to continue that way, this new approach simplifies the whole structure of two-way applications greatly.

Non-experienced developers can now have interactive two-way applications set up within minutes as all that is now required is to process an HTTP request and print the dynamic content to screen.

As a simple example, the message body "London Weather" would be passed over using HTTP Post (e.g. "msg=London+Weather"). The application would then, through its own means, print the dynamic content to screen (i.e. London's weather), e.g. "As usual, the weather in London is cold and rainy! Thanks for your message."

Our messaging platform will then retrieve the content printed to screen and send it back to the original sender using the least expensive route.

Please note that, although this method of developing interactive applications is very fast and easy, we still recommend experience developers to develop according to the SMS API, combining API-Client and Client-API interactions (i.e. receive an MO SMS, buffer it, query the most suitable route for the response and then respond to it).

A tutorial 'How to activate/configure an SMS Responder using content from a URL' has also been added to the Knowledge Base for those that wish to use this feature.

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For all of our automated message-sending processes, we have introduced a new process which chooses the most suitable messaging route:

• MinBal Notifications
  As 'tm4b.com' is used as the originator of SMS MinBal Notifications, routing preference is given to Business Class as it is less expensive.
• SMS Forwarding
  To preserve the originator of MO SMS as far as possible, routing preference is given to Global I.
• SMS Responses
  If the specified is static, routing preference is given to Global II as it less expensive. Otherwise, to preserve the originator as far as possible, routing preference is given to Global I.

In addition to minimising the cost of messaging, this new process simplifies the configuration of these applications as the messaging route no longer needs to be considered. Furthermore, in the case of SMS Responses, the previous rigidity of selecting one route restricted the potential network coverage to that route only; with this new process, the combined network coverage of both routes have been made available.

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Whilst the TM4B HelpDesk has been running silently for the benefit of a few Beta testers, the 'Help' icon that can now be seen throughout SMS Online indicates that the HelpDesk has become publicly available and that the out-dated 'Online Help' is no more.

This icon, which can now be seen on almost every page of SMS Online, is used in fact a link to provide relevant help about the page on which it is located. So clicking on it will open up a new browser window and take you to the relevant section within the Knowledge Base.

For those that are new to the HelpDesk, its purpose is to centralise customer support for two soon-to-be-launched services (Text-Messaging 4 Me and 70589.INFO), but more importantly to improve the customer care for users at the TM4B Bulk SMS Gateway.

The HelpDesk is still in Beta which means that it is not perfect! However, we feel that it is ready to be made publicly available and we appreciate the customer feedback which will help us to perfect it and we look forward to improving it in every way possible.

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In addition to the recent restructuring of 'Tools' into 'Extensions', the old Message Tracking tool has been replaced by a new section entitled 'Delivery Reports'.

More significantly, however, the ability to download delivery reports in CSV format has been added free-of-charge.

Although the Broadcast Analysis extension provides in-depth analyses of message broadcasts in real-time, the 'download as a CSV' option now makes it possible to conduct analyses offline using spreadsheet software.

Visit the Knowledge Base to read the tutorial that explains how to download delivery reports in CSV format.

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As mentioned in the post mentioning the discontinuation of 'Tools' we have launched a new section within SMS Online called 'Extensions'.

Through this new section, we aim to provide customers with value added applications that will enhance their use of SMS and to lease them for an annual fee of £29.95 each.

Extensions which are immediately available are SMS Dialogue, Broadcast Analysis and Duplicate Finder. Furthermore, extensions within our development pipeline include SMS Voting and SMS Optin.

Furthermore, the KnowledeBase now includes a section devoted to Extensions.

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Until now, our MSISDN validation process has taken into account:

• non-numeric characters
• leading 0's
• country codes

However, new validation rules have now been added that also take the length of a recipient's MSISDN into account.

From now on, if a recipient's MSISDN is less than 8 or more than 20 digits long, its associated message will be 'neglected'. This means that, instead of being processed at cost, the message will be given a NEGLCTD status and users will not be charged for the message.

These validation rules have put in place following recent clarification from upstream suppliers that we are not charged for such messages and that they simply 'fail' them at no cost. As such, we have updated the delivery state of all such messages within our database to reflect this and have issued credit refunds to those customers who submitted such messages in the past.

Details of such credit refunds, if applicable, can be viewed by visiting the "Sales" section of SMS Online.