Introduction and Background



Generic SMS Gateway for AtLink EVI

(Enterprise Voice Integration)

Instructor: Dr. K. Yue

Mentor: Dilhar De Silva, AtLink Communications Inc.

Capstone Team #6 Members:

Dang Nguyen

Huy Do

Tan Nguyen

Thang Nguyen

Report date: April 26th, 2007

Spring 2007 Semester

April 7, 2007

Abstract

Short Message Service (SMS) has rapidly become the most cost effective technology for a wide range of telecommunications applications. The most commonly used supporting protocols for SMS applications are HTTP, SMTP and SMPP. These applications can send message to mobile phones from different carriers in the background, thus increasing the productivity of employees. AtLink Communications is the leading provider of Voice Process Automation technology focusing on SMS applications to communicate with mobile co-workers, customers at anytime anywhere to streamline their work.

This project aims to develop SMS web-based application which supports two-way SMS using SMTP, HTTP and SMPP protocols, cover at least US and Europe. Especially the application can change the binding to any gateway by changing binding parameters and integrate with existing EVI Communication profiles. The application has been developed by using AJAX for UI, JAVA as a development language and Eclipse as a development environment and Microsoft Visio as an UML tool for analysis & design specifications.

The team has successfully developed and tested the application to send and receive messages using HTTP, SMTP in the real environment and SMPP in the simulation environment.

Table of Contents

1 Introduction and Background 1

2 Design and Implementation 2

2.1 System Architecture 2

2.2 Use Case Diagram 4

2.3 Relation Schema 6

2.4 Class Diagram 6

2.5 Technologies Used 7

2.6 Software Development Model 7

2.7 Implementation Issues 7

3 Evaluation of Solution 8

3.1 Prototype Evaluation 8

3.2 Lessons learned 9

4 Conclusions and future direction 10

5 References 11

6 Appendices 12

6.1 Appendix A – Project Management and Team Information 12

6.1.1 Team Roles and role assignments 12

6.1.2 Schedule 13

6.2 Appendix B – Major tasks and contributions 14

6.3 Appendix C – How SMS system works 15

6.4 Appendix D – User Interfaces 17

6.2.1 Home Page 17

6.2.2 Login Page 17

6.2.3 Read Message Page 18

6.2.4 Send Page 18

6.2.5 Personal Page 19

6.2.6 Other services Page 19

6.5 Appendix E – Class Diagram 20

6.6 Appendix F – SMS Gateway Provider Research 20

Table of Figures

Figure 1 SMS Spot Application Architecture 3

Figure 2 SMS Spot Use Case Diagram 5

Figure 3 Typical SMS system 16

Figure 4 Home Page 17

Figure 5 Login Page 17

Figure 6 Read Message Page 18

Figure 7 Send Page 18

Figure 8 Personal Page 19

Figure 9 Other Service Page 19

Figure 10 Class Diagram 20

Table of Tables

Table 1 Team members and Responsibilities 12

Table 2 List of SMS Gateway Providers 31

Table 3 Short list of SMS Gateway Providers 34

Table 4 Comparison of cost among SMS gateway providers 35

Table 5 Comparison of minimum purchase requirements 35

Table 6 Comparison of monthly usage requirement among SMS gateway providers 36

Table 7 Credit expire information among SMS Gateway providers 36

Table 8 Free SMS message information 36

Table 9 SIM card hosting information among SMS Gateway providers 37

Table 10 Dedicated virtual mobile number information among SMS providers 37

Table 11 Shared virtual mobile number information among SMS Gateway providers 37

Table 12 Short code for SMS reverse billing / premium SMS 38

Table 13 Support Service 38

Table 14 Chosen SMS Gateway providers 39

Table 15 US SMS Gateway Providers 40

Introduction and Background

AtLink Communications is the leading provider of Voice Process Automation technology.   By treating Voice Processes the same as a standard Business Process, AtLink customers automate, manage and control their enterprise more effectively and efficiently than previously possible. Currently, AtLink EVI (Enterprise Voice Integration) needs SMS (Short Message Service) module to accommodate the immediate and future requirements of customers. Therefore, AtLink has sponsored for team 6 of UH Clear Lake to develop this module.

This project aims to develop SMS web-based application which supports two-way SMS over the United States and Europe using SMTP, HTTP and SMPP protocols. In particular, the application can change the binding to any gateway by changing binding parameters and integrate with existing EVI Communication profiles. SMS messages are routed through commercial SMS gateways. The application can select the optimal gateway for a SMS message in real time and bind the input parameters accordingly. It is also can be integrated with the profiles of EVI Communications. It has been developed by using AJAX for UI, JAVA as a development language and Eclipse as a development environment and Microsoft Visio as an UML tool for analysis & design specifications. The rest of this document will be organized as follows:

- Design and Implementation: This part introduces about the requirements, architecture, the Use Case diagram, relation schema, class diagram, technologies used, software development model and implementation issues of the application.

- Evaluation of solution: This part tells about the solution by using Prototype evaluation and the lessons learned from this project.

- Conclusion and Future directions: Conclude about project and its future directions.

- References: List the sources of references.

- Appendices: Provide background information on how SMS system works; the screenshot of our application and the criteria for evaluating a SMS gateway provider and SMS Gateway Provider Research.

In conclusion, the team has successfully tested the application to send and receive messages using HTTP, SMTP in the real environment and SMPP in the simulation environment.

Design and Implementation

1 System Architecture

Figure 1 is the system architecture. The components developed by team members are in the rectangular with dash line:

[pic]

Figure 1 SMS Spot Application Architecture

The application contains seven main components. Its functions are described as follows:

- Web Browser: Running on client-side, it allows users log in and send SMS messages.

- Web Service: Provide the service for gateway and SMS application to send and receive SMS messages under JAXWS

- EVI (Enterprise Voice Integration) profile: contain the information of customers. Based on this information, the web application can determine the route and protocol for transferring a message.

- Web Application: Running in the server-side, it handles requests from SMS users for sending and receiving SMS message. Beside, the web application can get the information from EVI profile or database, and then it decides the route and the protocol that it uses to send the SMS message. This is the server side component to be built by the project.

- SMS Gateway: an SMS gateway can be set up to handle the connections to the SMSCs. To connect to an SMS gateway, you can use an SMSC protocol such as SMPP, HTTP/HTTPS, email to SMS, etc.

- SMS Center: A SMS center (SMSC) is responsible for handling the SMS operations of a wireless network. When an SMS message is sent from a mobile phone, it will reach an SMS center first. The SMS center then forwards the SMS message towards the destination.

- Mail Sever: Provide SMTP service to send SMS messages to the mail system of the mobile phone carriers and a mailbox to receive the SMS message sent from mobile phones.

2 Use Case Diagram

The following is the Use Case diagram of the application. It contains three actors which are User, Administrator and Mobile and the functions performed by these actors. The functions that will be performed by User are:

- Register

- Login

- Create Profile

- Send SMS message

- Reply SMS message

The functions that will be performed by Administrator are:

- Login

- Create User

- Manage User

- Configure System

- Manage SMS Gateway Account

[pic]

Figure 2 SMS Spot Use Case Diagram

3 Relation Schema

The Database includes four tables to provide complete information to users and they are stored in MySQL database management system.

- Message table: is identified by MessageID and contains information such as messagetype, subject, content, sender, date and userID. This table is used to store all the messages sent back and forth by users

- Contact table is identified by UserID and contains information such as Username, password, firstname, lastname, address, homephone, cellphone and servprovider. This table is used to store the contact or recipient information that user want to send messages to.

- Group table is identified by userID, groupID and contains information such as group name, description. This table is used to store group of contact or recipient information that user want to send messages to.

- GroupDetail table is identified by userID, groupID. This table is used to provide detail information of the corresponding group.

4 Class Diagram

A complete class diagram is included as Appendix E.

5 Technologies Used

The application has been developed by using AJAX for UI, JAVA as a development language and Eclipse as a development environment and Microsoft Visio as an UML tool for analysis & design specifications. Especially, we exported every functions of the applications into Web services using JAXWS, which would be much easier for AtLink to develop other new functions or change the user interfaces when needed.

6 Software Development Model

We used an iterative approach to development in concert with rapid prototyping. After collecting requirements we started by developing the required functions and user interfaces and showed them to Mr. Dilhar to give him idea of what the application would look like and also helped us to refine the requirements by communicating in terms of the proposed user interfaces. Through the discussion, we received feedback from Mr. Dilhar to make all necessary changes to the application to provide needed features.

7 Implementation Issues

The main obstacles we encountered were the limited time and budget. Therefore, we used the Logica SMSC simulation software to do the programming with SMPP protocol. Even though this is a simulation SMSC but it works almost the same as the real SMSC. Therefore, we can assure that when AtLink Communications Inc. buys enough credits to use the real SMSCs, the application is not required to change the code. The only thing that needs to be changed is the suitable parameters for that SMSC provided by the SMS gateway providers. This minor change is accepted by the mentor from AtLink Communications Inc., Mr. Dilhar De Silva, CTO of AtLink Communication Inc.

Evaluation of Solution

1 Prototype Evaluation

We have developed successfully SMS application that satisfies all the requirements of AtLink Communication Inc. During almost four months, we had to work hard to:

- Make clear the requirements from AtLink Communication Inc.

- Do the research on SMS technologies in details.

- Choose suitable SMS gateways for the application.

- Learn how to use tools in design and develop the application.

The result of our hard work is to deliver a user friendly, flexible to deploy and add new features and easy to maintain SMS application which is able to

- Connect to any SMTP, HTTP and SMPP SMS gateways

- Change the binding dynamically to any gateway by changing binding parameters

- Support two-way SMS capabilities. It means that the application can send message to mobile phone and receive message from mobile phone.

- Cover United State and Europe

- Integrate with EVI Communication profiles.

Besides, we spent many hours to analyze the user actions when they use this application to create the most fancy and convenient user interfaces and optimizing the page flow and information displayed to the user.

2 Lessons learned

This project was rather new to us in term of technologies and tools used to develop the application. However, with the help of our instructor Dr. Yue and mentor Mr. Dilhar, we have developed successfully the SMS application and we learned the following lessons:

- How to do the research and choose appropriate SMS gateway providers: We spent so much time to search for SMS gateway providers and created a list of criteria to decide which providers are suitable for our application. In the future, we can use this technique to choose similar products or services

- Requirement Engineering: The requirements provided to us were in very high level. However, with our prototype and test cases shown to our mentor Mr. Dilhar we could capture the requirements and clearly defined the scope for the application. Moreover, we get to know that we should think as customers to develop the application.

- Project and Team Management: Even though we are good friends but each team member has his own strength and weakness and especially they had different schedule. Therefore, managing such team is a quite difficult task. We had to clearly divide tasks and assigned to appropriate team members, the team leader had to co-ordinate the team members, contacted with instructor Dr. Yue and mentor Mr. Dilhar, tracked progress and resolved the conflicts in the team.

We believe that, these lessons will be valuable experiences for us in the future not only in developing application but also in many cases of real life.

Conclusions and future direction

The SMS Spot application has been developed to allow users to send and receive SMS messages. The application uses two SMS gateways which are ClickaTell SMS Gateway for SMTP and HTTP/HTTPS protocols and Logica simulation gateway for SMPP protocol. It can send and receive messages to and from mobile phone.

The application meets all the requirements required by AtLink Inc. However, to deploy application, Atlink Inc. needs to buy enough credit to use SMPP protocol. We believe that, with the real SMS gateway, the application will required a little or no modification to send and receive SMS message.

In the future, the application can be added more services such as send/receive Voice messages, Ring tone and pictures to mobile phone or do a schedule tasks or services based on the users’ requirements.

We would like to thank to Dr. Yue and Mr. Dilhar for their advices to help us complete this project successfully.

References

[1] “AtLink Communications Inc”. Retrieved 3/05/2007 from

[2] “Short Message Service / SMS Tutorial”. Retrieved 3/05/ 2007

[3] “Clickatell SMS Gateway”. Retrieved 3/05/2007

[4] “SMS2email”. Retrieved 3/05/ 2007

[5] “MXtelecom”. Retrieved 3/05/ 2007

[6] “SMS Forum”. Retrieved 3/05/2007

[7] “Short message service”. Retrieved 3/05/2007

[8] “TCP/IP Suite”. Retrieved 3/05/2007

[9] “Logica SMSC simulation software and documentation”. Retrieved 3/05/2007

[10] “ActiveXperts SMS and Pager Toolkit 4.1”. Retrieved 3/05/ 2007

Appendices

1 Appendix A – Project Management and Team Information

1 Team Roles and role assignments

The following table lists the team members, assigned roles and their responsibilities in the project.

|No |Name |Roles |Responsibilities |

|1 |Dang Nguyen |Leader |Co ordinate team members and contact with Dr. Yue and mentor Dilhar. |

| | | |Define the project requirement and design the application. |

| | | |Design Database |

| | | |Coding application |

|2 |Huy Do |Member |Define the project requirement and design the application. |

| | | |Design UI |

| | | |Coding application |

|3 |Tan Nguyen |Member |Define the project requirement and design the application. |

| | | |Design UI and Create store procedures |

| | | |Coding application |

|4 |Thang Nguyen |Member |Define the project requirement and design the application. |

| | | |Design Database |

| | | |Create test cases and documentation |

Table 1 Team members and Responsibilities

6.1.2 Schedule

The following is the project schedule, including tasks, assigned team members and start and finish date

[pic]

2 Appendix B – Major tasks and contributions

Team Leadership

• Dang Nguyen (100%) – Meeting scheduling, meeting minutes, task assignment coordination, decide the solution

• Huy Do (100%) – Task discussion and make clear the requirement

• Tan Nguyen (100%) – Task discussion and make clear the requirement

• Thang Nguyen (100%) – Task discussion and make clear the requirement

Application creation and Maintenance

• Dang Nguyen (100%) – Create and develop application

• Huy Do (100%) – Created and maintained Web site

• Tan Nguyen (100%) – maintained Web site

• Thang Nguyen (100%) – maintained Web site

Database Design and Implementation

• Dang Nguyen(100%) – Drafted database design, implemented database

• Huy Do (100%) – contributed to database design decisions

• Tan Nguyen (100%) – contributed to database design decisions

• Thang Nguyen (100%) – contributed to database design decisions

Prototype Design and Implementation

• Dang Nguyen (100%) – prototype design, coding: Login page, registration page, send/receive/select provider message page.

• Huy Do (100%) – prototype design, coding: create and manage users, configure system.

• Tan Nguyen (100%) – prototype design, coding: register and create profile.

• Thang Nguyen (100%) – prototype design, HTML mockup, create test cases and test the application

Documentation

• Dang Nguyen (100%) – comment

• Huy Do (100%) – comment

• Tan Nguyen (100%) – edited Coding standards

• Thang Nguyen– Drafted Coding Standards document

System Installation

• Dang Nguyen (100%) – Install SMS application

• Huy Do (100%) – Install SMS application

• Tan Nguyen (100%) – Install SMS application

• Thang Nguyen (100%) – Install and configure operating system, MySQL database and Web server

3 Appendix C – How SMS system works

SMS stands for Short Message Service which has achieved huge success in the wireless world. Billions of SMS messages are sent every day. SMS is now a major revenue generator for wireless carriers. A lot of innovative applications are now built on top of the SMS technology and more are being developed. The following is a diagram of a typical SMS system.

[pic]

Figure 3 Typical SMS system

Figure 1 shows a typical SMS system. The SMS center (SMSC) serves as the bridge for mobile phones to the external world by routing the SMS messages. The SMS gateways, mostly commercial in nature, route SMS messages between the SMSC, and between SMSC and the Internet world. As a result, SMS applications developed using Internet Protocol, such as SMTP, HTTP and SMPP, need only to route SMS messages to the appropriate SMS gateways.

4 Appendix D – User Interfaces

6.2.1 Home Page

The following is the Home Page of the application, it provides overview of the application and allows users to register, login, and manage profile.

[pic]

Figure 4 Home Page

6.2.2 Login Page

The following is the Login Page of the application, it allows users to login to read messages and do other functions.

[pic]

Figure 5 Login Page

6.2.3 Read Message Page

When users login they can read the messages sent to them as the following:

[pic]

Figure 6 Read Message Page

6.2.4 Send Page

When Users click on Compose button, the Send Page will appear as follows:

[pic]

Figure 7 Send Page

6.2.5 Personal Page

When Users click on Personal Profiles button, the Personal Information page will appear as follows to allow users to manage their information:

[pic]

Figure 8 Personal Page

6.2.6 Other services Page

When Users click on Personal Profiles button, the Other services page will appear as follows but these services are still not implemented.

[pic]

Figure 9 Other Service Page

5 Appendix E – Class Diagram

The Database includes four tables which are Message, Contact, Group and GroupDetail to provide complete information to users and they are stored in MySQL database management system.

[pic]

Figure 10 Class Diagram

6 Appendix F – SMS Gateway Provider Research

Based on the requirement of the project, we first pick up the providers that satisfy the requirement of the project on this step. That means the providers have to support HTTP and SMTP API and 2-way SMS messaging in US with an appropriate price. We firstly evaluate each provider by four criteria: cost, coverage, protocols and 2-way SMS messaging.

Step 1: Collecting provider’s information

Here is the table that lists all providers of our research with their information in detail

|URL to the SMS gateway provider's web |Cost for sending SMS messages |Network coverage |Protocols or interfaces |2-way SMS messaging:|2-way SMS messaging: |2-way SMS messaging:|

|site | | |supported |SIM card hosting |shared virtual mobile |dedicated virtual |

| | | | | |number (keyword sharing) |mobile number |

| |Economy option: |(Details) |HTTP / HTTPS, email to |Setup fee: $2950 |Free of charge for all |Setup fee: $2000 |

| |$ 0.04 - $ 0.06 per SMS message| |SMS, SMPP / SMPP (SSL) |Monthly fee: $100 |account holders (10 |PCM hosting charge |

| |Standard option: | |(Details) |(Details) |keywords) |for initial virtual |

| |$ 0.053 - $ 0.23 per SMS | |XML / SOAP | |(Details 1, Details 2) |mobile number: $250 |

| |message | |(Details) | | |Additional charge |

| |Premium (UK only) option: | | | | |per extra virtual |

| |$ 0.072 - $ 0.23 per SMS | | | | |mobile number, PCM: |

| |message | | | | |$210 - $140 |

| |Premium (global) option: | | | | |(Details) |

| |$ 0.1 - $ 0.29 per SMS message | | | | | |

| |(Details) | | | | | |

| |For the "International Bulk |(Details 1, details 2) |HTTP, SMPP |None. But they offer|Two-way SMS messaging |Two-way SMS |

| |(Excluding Europe)" plan: | |(Details) |a free program that |services are available. |messaging services |

| |0.013 USD per credit | | |you can use to host |(Details) |are available. |

| |For the "Bulk SMS Europe" plan:| | |a SIM card by | |(Details) |

| |0.03 USD per SMS message | | |yourself. | | |

| |(Details) | | |(Details) | | |

| |They provide other SMS packages| | | | | |

| |that start from a price of 15 | | | | | |

| |Euros. The pricing information | | | | | |

| |is not available without login.| | | | | |

| |(Details) | | | | | |

| |0.08 - 0.14 USD per SMS message|(Details) |HTTP / HTTPS, SMPP, XML / |Setup fee: 2000 USD |Setup fee: 0 USD |Setup fee: 2000 USD |

| |(Details) | |SOAP |Monthly hosting fee:|Monthly fee: 300 USD |Monthly fee for the |

| |Additional internetworking fees| |(Details) |400 USD |(Details) |service: 600 USD |

| |are required to send an SMS | | |(Details) | |Monthly fee for each|

| |message to some mobile network | | | | |virtual mobile |

| |operators. | | | | |number: 100 - 4 USD |

| |(Details) | | | | |(Details) |

| |To send SMS messages to the US,| | | | | |

| |you need a dedicated short | | | | | |

| |code. The service pricing is | | | | | |

| |not available on the web site. | | | | | |

| |You have to contact their staff| | | | | |

| |for the details. | | | | | |

| |(Details) | | | | | |

| |You need to contact their staff|(Details) |XML, SOAP, SMTP, SMPP |A 2-way SMS messaging service called "One World One Number" is |

| |for the pricing information. | |It is possible to connect |available. You have to contact their staff for the details. |

| |(See "What are your per message| |via VPN (IPSec) or SSL. |(Details) |

| |prices?" in the FAQ web page.) | |(Details) | |

| |$0.02 - $0.014 per credit |(Details) |HTTP, SMTP |No SIM hosting |UK mobile numbers are available. |

| |(Details) | |(Details) |service is provided.|One dedicated keyword with an unlimited number |

| | | | |But you can host the|of sub-keywords: |

| | | | |SIM card by yourself|Annual cost: $80 |

| | | | |or a third party and|Using sub-keywords under the shared "tm4b" |

| | | | |forward the SMS |keyword: |

| | | | |messages received to|Free of charge |

| | | | |TM4B's platform to |(Details 1, details 2) |

| | | | |take advantage of | |

| | | | |its keyword | |

| | | | |management feature. | |

| | | | |(Details) | |

| | | | |Annual cost: $199 | |

| | | | |(Details) | |

| |? |? |HTTP |? |

| | | |(Details) | |

| |HTTP / HTTPS, SMTP (email to SMS),|Support |Chosen |All information is available in their website |

| |SMPP, XML, FTP and COM Object | | | |

| |(Details) | | | |

| |HTTP / HTTPS, email to SMS, SMPP /|Support |Chosen |All information is available in their website |

| |SMPP (SSL) | | | |

| |(Details) | | | |

| |XML / SOAP | | | |

| |(Details) | | | |

| |HTTP, SMPP |Support |Chosen |All information is available in their website |

| |(Details) | | | |

| |HTTP / HTTPS, SMPP, XML / SOAP |Support |Chosen |All information is available in their website |

| |(Details) | | | |

| |XML, SOAP, SMTP, SMPP |

| |It is possible to connect via VPN (IPSec) or SSL. |

| |(Details) |

|clickatell |$ 0.044 - $ 0.057 per credit |

| |$ 0.066 - $ 0.085 per message (in US) |

|sms2email |$ 0.053 - $ 0.230 per message (non internetworked) |

| |$ 0.100 - $ 0.290 per message (fully internetworked) |

|mysmsaddress |$ 0.013 per credit |

| |$ 0.03 per message |

|mxtelecom |$ 0.080 - $ 0.140 per message |

Table 4 Comparison of cost among SMS gateway providers

Note: The price of sms2email provider seems to be the most expensive one, but it doesn’t mean the cheaper the better. It’s just one thing that affects the cost criterion.

a. Minimum purchase requirements

|Provider |Minimum purchase require |

|clickatell |200 credits ($ 8.8 – $ 11.4) |

| |5000 credits for SMPP API ( $ 220 - $ 285) |

|sms2email |50 messages ($ 2.5 - $ 15) |

|mysmsaddress |200.000 credits ($ 2.600) |

| |500.000 messages ($ 15.000) |

|mxtelecom |2.000 messages ($ 160 - $ 280) |

Table 5 Comparison of minimum purchase requirements among SMS gateway providers

Note: MySMSAddress provider seems to be inappropriate for our application because they require so many credits and SMSs for minimum purchase requirement.

b. Monthly usage

|Provider |Monthly usage |

|clickatell |5000 credits for SMPP API ( $ 220 - $ 285) |

|sms2email |No information |

|mysmsaddress |No information |

|mxtelecom |No information |

Table 6 Comparison of monthly usage requirement among SMS gateway providers

Note: Only Clickatell requires monthly usage for SMPP API

c. Will purchased credits or SMS messages expire?

|Provider |Will purchased credits or SMS messages expire? |

|clickatell |6 months |

|sms2email |1 month for Prepay option |

| |12 months for Contracted option (rollover messages) |

| |1 month for Contracted option (expiring messages) |

|mysmsaddress |No information |

|mxtelecom |1 months |

Table 7 Credit expire information among SMS Gateway providers

d. Free SMS message

|Provider |Number of free SMS messages or credits |

|clickatell |10 credits. |

| |No free credits for the SMPP API and two-way SMS |

|sms2email |0 |

|mysmsaddress |0 |

|mxtelecom |0 |

Table 8 Free SMS message information

Note: No provider gives free SMS for SMPP testing.

e. Support 2-way SMS messaging

For 2-way messaging in the USA, Clickatell requires the rental of a shortcode.

|Provider |2-way SMS messaging: SIM card hosting |

|clickatell |No information |

|sms2email |Setup fee: $2950 |

| |Monthly fee: $100 |

|mysmsaddress |No information |

|mxtelecom |Setup fee: 2000 USD |

| |Monthly fee: 400 USD |

Table 9 SIM card hosting information among SMS Gateway providers

|Provider |2-way SMS messaging: dedicated virtual mobile number |

|clickatell |Not support for US |

|sms2email |Setup fee: $2000 |

| |PCM hosting charge for initial virtual mobile number: $250. Additional charge per |

| |extra virtual mobile number PCM: $210 - $140 |

|mysmsaddress |Support but no information about the price |

|mxtelecom |Setup fee: $ 2000 |

| |Monthly fee for the service: $ 600 |

| |Monthly fee for each virtual mobile number: $ 100 - 4 |

Table 10 Dedicated virtual mobile number information among SMS Gateway providers

|Provider |2-way SMS messaging: shared virtual mobile number (keyword sharing) |

|clickatell |No information |

|sms2email |Free of charge (10 keywords) |

|mysmsaddress |No information |

|mxtelecom |Setup fee: 0 USD |

| |Monthly fee: 300 USD |

Table 11 Shared virtual mobile number information among SMS Gateway providers

f. Shortcode

▪ All shortcodes in the USA are obtained through a central body. This body charges a monthly rental fee, which is included in the above pricing.

▪ With Clickatell, if you have already obtained your own shortcode, then you may qualify for a monthly discount of $480 for a random shortcode, or $950 for a selected shortcode.

▪ With other providers, we don’t find the information about shortcode. You should contact with their staff to get this information.

|Provider |Short code for SMS reverse billing / premium SMS |

|clickatell |USA short code: |

| |Setup fee: $ 2200 |

| |Monthly fee: $ 750 - $ 1300 |

| |Switching fee: 1/3 credit per inbound SMS message |

|sms2email |No information |

|mysmsaddress |USA short code: |

| |Setup fee: ? |

| |Monthly fee: ? |

| |Switching fee: ? |

|mxtelecom |USA short code: |

| |Setup fee: ? |

| |Monthly fee: ? |

| |Switching fee: ? |

Table 12 Short code for SMS reverse billing / premium SMS

g. Support service

|Provider |Support service |

|clickatell |Very good |

|sms2email |Good |

|mysmsaddress |Good |

|mxtelecom |Good |

Table 13 Support Service

Step 4: Chosen SMS Gateway provider

We will eliminate some providers in this step based on the information that we analyze above.

|Provider |Status |

|air2web |Waiting |

|clickatell |Chosen |

|sms2email |Chosen |

|mysmsaddress |Eliminated |

|mxtelecom |Chosen |

Table 14 Chosen SMS Gateway providers

Note:

▪ Air2Web is eliminated because we have no information about the price of their service. We are trying to contact with Air2Web to find more information about them and hope that we can find one more appropriate provider for our project

▪ MySMSAdress is eliminated because they require buying so many credits and messages for the minimum purchase.

Step 5: Choose SMS Gateway provider

Finally, we think Clickatell, SMS2Email, and MXTelecom are the most appropriate with this project.

Note : Major US wireless carriers

The major US wireless carriers (Alltel, Cingular, Nextel, Skytel, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon) don’t provide the services that allow accessing their SMPP gateway. The information in their website doesn’t state that they support SMPP connection. They only support HTTP, SMS to email and email to SMS. Our application can use the protocols that they support to send and receive messages.

Here is the table that lists some US providers with their information in details

|URL to the SMS gateway |Cost for sending SMS messages |Monthly minimum usage requirements|Network coverage |Protocols or interfaces |API documents |Number of free SMS |

|provider's web site | | | |supported | |messages or credits |

|T- |Messages are charged $0.10 per |Any 400 messages $4.99 per month |? |SMS, MMS, Email to SMS |? |None |

| |message in or outbound. And |Any 1000 messages $9.99 per month | |(number@) | | |

| |depend on post-paid or pre-paid|Unlimited messages $14.99 per | |(Detail) | | |

| |(Detail) |month | | | | |

| | |(Detail) | | | | |

| |Send and receive messages at |None |US and more than 65 |Get vital information and tools|Available for |? |

| |$0.10 per message with no | |countries worldwide |to help you add messaging |download with | |

| |monthly charge. Or, you can | |(Detail) |capabilities to your wireless |account developer | |

| |sign up for a more economical | | |applications. These include |registration. If you| |

| |Text Messaging package. | | |SMS, MMS, WAP Push and e-mail. |don’t have account, | |

| |$0.20 to send an international | | |(Detail) |you just have little| |

| |message | | | |API information | |

| | | | | |(Detail) | |

Table 15 US SMS Gateway Providers

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