SMS Sending gateways can be stratified into two categories based on their usage parameters: Enterprise level and small industry level. For corporate usage, direct-to-smsc gateways are used. Under the license of an operator and a specially leased link, these provide a direct and secure connection of the client with the particular operator’s short messaging center. The operator fixes the SMS sending throughput after negotiations with the client and winding up a contract. Hence any gateway deployed on such a link, can only send SMSs at that specific rate. In addition to that, smsc connectivity allows the client to send SMS via a white-label short code or a particular LA (Large Address). Thus for SMS marketing and in some cases, masking the SMS can only be done in a direct-to-smsc link. Since the per message charge of such connections is low compared to normal user tariff, and manipulation of SMS headers and routing inbound and outbound traffic to customized applications is convenient on the server end; the direct to smsc gateways can allow users to integrate the low-cost, high throughput, bulk SMS sending feature with third-party applications easily.
Small industries and home users can utilize their local mobile network to send and receive messages via a SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card. It is similar to an SMS transaction on your handheld device with the device replaced by a personal computer. The tariff, sender number, throughput remain the same as that for any other user of the same operator. Usually, small industries employ open-source solutions for SMS sending e.g. Kannel, and OzekiSMS but their instability with hardware interfaces gives the professional hardware SMS gateway manufacturers a leading edge over these open-source platforms.
There are several vendors that support dual mode gateway connectivity. Hypermedia Systems is one such brand that develops and manufactures very flexible gateways that can support 288 SIMs; hence the throughput can be load-balanced and users can get a seamless high-volume sms sending solution without the direct-to-smsc link provision. Having 4-32 SMS ports and supporting SMPP & HTTP protocols, it is ideal for advanced marketing campaigns that require bulk sms throughput on a single web based application. As a plus point, some of the attractive features of Hypermedia SMS Gateway, is its support for XML and ASCII in third party APIs, a build in history log of the SMS transactions, bulk SMS to email management, and predefined SMS group lists and templates. In addition to that, Hypermedia offers tailor-made, usage mode optimized SMS gateway devices that focus on bulk SMS sending, and SMS marketing campaigns individually.