Bulk SMS service

Bulk SMS service refers to a service when an SMS gateway allows you to send out a great amount of SMS messages to multiple recipients at the same time. You can send out one particular message to thousands of people, or you can send personalized messages to each person – either way, the messages can be sent out simultaneously. The SMS gateway will provide the technical background for you to use this opportunity.

Figure 1 - Bulk SMS service offered by SMS Gateway applications

Bulk SMS service is provided by many SMS gateways available on the market but you can also require the service from an SMS gateway provider. If you plan to use such service you can calculate on some costs in both cases.

Let’s see the first option. If you choose to set up your own SMS system with an own SMS gateway, you have to pay for the SMS gateway which is actually a software product and you have to pay the costs of the set up which provides the appropriate environment for SMS sending (and receiving, in other cases). Having your own SMS system has a main advantage: it’s only a one-time cost. This means you only have to pay these costs once, and then on, the system works smoothly without any additional costs. The price of bulk SMS messages are determined by the selected service provider. However, there are ways for reducing messaging costs such as Least Cost Routing.

The other possibility is to sign up to the Bulk SMS service of an SMS service provider. This way you will pay for a formerly defined amount of SMS messages that you can send out then within a time period. It needs to be mentioned that in case of these SMS services, the SMS sending process cannot be controlled like in the case you use your own SMS gateway.

For SMS messaging you need to connect your SMS gateway to the mobile network. It is possible in two ways: via GSM modem connectivity and/or IP SMS connectivity. The second possibility is more recommended to deal with huge amounts of SMS messages. GSM modem connection can’t handle bulk message sending as its performance is limited to 6-10 SMS delivery per minute. You can increase this performance by attaching more than one GSM modem but in case of bulk SMS service you would need to use plenty of GSM modems to reach your goals. To reach a more approved performance, IP SMS services should be applied. Bulk SMS services use the following protocols most commonly:

• SMPP protocol
  SMPP (“Short Message Peer-to-Peer Protocol”) is one of the many communication protocols that is widely used in the telecommunications industry to exchange SMS messages between short message service centers (SMSC) and/or external short messaging entities (ESME). It is the protocol most often used by organizations needing to send vast amounts of SMS messages simultaneously. Because an SMPP connection is continuously connected to the SMS gateway, it is an extremely fast and reliable way to send bulk SMS messages.


• UCP protocol
  UCP protocol is used to connect mobile phones and SMS messages to SMS Centers (SMSC), and is utilized by Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) providers, because it is able to transfer vast amounts of SMS traffic, allowing SMS messages to be sent in bulk. The UCP protocol is used for both normal rate and value added premium rate SMS messages. The unique characteristic of this protocol is that it allows its users to set the message sender’s address, which can either be a user-specified word, or a personalized phone number. Sometimes, however, this possibility is limited, or restricted by network providers.


• HTTP protocol
  HTTP stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol. It is the network protocol used to deliver virtually all files and other data (collectively called resources) on the World Wide Web. It is both simple and powerful. HTTP uses the client-server model: An HTTP client opens a connection and sends a request message to an HTTP server; the server then returns a response message, usually containing the resource that was requested. After delivering the response, the server closes the connection (making HTTP a stateless protocol, i.e. not maintaining any connection information between transactions).

As you can see, the first two options are more suitable for using SMS technology, but there can be situations when the third protocol is more optimal.

To get more information, please visit the following websites:
The Ozeki NG SMS Gateway website
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