The Importance of SMPP for Bulk SMS
It’s possible you never considered what goes on behind the scenes, technology-wise, when you send out a batch of bulk SMS messages to your customers and prospects.
And honestly, you shouldn’t.
When complicated systems work as they should, the technology behind them should be invisible. This allows you to complete your SMS tasks quickly, and carry on with your day.
But when it comes to picking an SMS Gateway Provider, you need to be up to speed on the basics. Because how your messages are sent, and with what protocol, makes a big difference to the delivery rates of those messages.
SMPP Vs. SMTP for Sending MMS Messages
SMPP stands for “short message peer-to-peer”.
All you need to know is that this is the gold standard protocol used to send SMS messages. When bulk SMS messages are sent through SMPP, messages are relayed to the mobile carriers (Bell, Virgin, AT&T, Verizon, and so on), and then relayed through their networks to your customers’ phones.
The same technology is used when you pick up your phone and send a text to a friend.
Cool.
However, what you probably didn’t know is that texts can also be sent through SMTP. SMTP stands for ‘Simple Mail Transfer Protocol”, and it’s the standard protocol for sending email.
For example, you can send a text message to your friend with your email client, as long as you know their service provider. If your friend is with AT&T, and her phone number is 456-567-8999, sending an email to…
4565678999@txt.att.net
… will see your message show up on her phone as a text message.
Maybe.
Because the biggest problem with using SMTP for text delivery is getting your message to your customer’s phone successfully and reliably. And you won`t know if you have, because it’s almost impossible to know for sure.
So how do you know whether the SMS Gateway service you are investigating is using SMTP or SMPP
Well, they will tell you. You may have to dig to find it, but they will tell you. However, unless you understand the ramifications of using an inferior delivery method, it probably won`t mean anything to you.
Another way to tell is by the cost of the service.
Why Not Check Out BROADCASTsms for Sending Bulk Messages?
If you’re looking for an easy to use, super-powerful mass texting app with lots of great functionality, have a look at BROADCASTsms.