Determining a Cell Provider

[Jeffrey Ferreira]

Hello List,

I have a client that wants to send texts from our software ...the only problem is that is in order for me to do it i need to attach the extension of the phone carrier like @vtext.com @att.text.com, does anyone at any of the divisions know of an api or something i can use that can tell me the extension of a phone carrier..i found a web site but i would love to do it programatically.

any help is appreciated...

thanks

jeff

[Mike King]

Jeff

Why not use the *tools/sms utility that comes with PxPlus?

Check out: https://manual.pvxplus.com/page/utilities/sms.htm

[Jeffrey Ferreira]

Hi Mike,

Because I did not know it existed.
Thank you again.

I will check it out.

[Mike King]

Glad to assist.

We use a "free/pay as you go" account at smsmatrix ourselves.   Basically for $9.00 we buy blocks of 100 SMS text messages.  That's a cost $0.09 each with no upfront/monthly commitment.

They have other types of accounts depending on your volume. 

So far it was worked quite well both here (Canada) and in the US.  We have found that generally the text message gets delivered within 10 seconds of the time we submit it.

[Loren Doornek]

Jeff, I've used www.eztexting.com for years.  It has a simple interface, but also more extensive functionality if necessary.  You can buy blocks of credits, or monthly/yearly plans.  It also allows you to login to the site and check the status of any text message if there are problems.  You can also get a 'short code' which makes it easier for the recipients to know who is texting them (and thus not block the number, which is the only problem I ever ran into.)

Sending a text is simply a matter of opening an HTTPS connection, or using any of the utilities in Providex to make the connection.  An example of the URL is below:

https://app.eztexting.com/api/sending/?user=MyLogin&pass=MyPassword&phonenumber=8885551212&subject=TestMessage&message=This_Is_A_Test&express=1

[Jeffrey Ferreira]

thank you Loren and Mike...so for years we've been texting people by just sending an email to  something like this

4015551212@vtext.com

and it worked fine (but these are internal users and we know provider).....
i explained to customer that he is going to have to join a service and we'll use their api or the pxplus utility

i thought about just sending the email to all of them
att, sprint, verizon, tmobile, cricket, boost but i'll probably get blacklisted

[Loren Doornek]

I used the email-to-text option@vtext.com also, and it's a good (ie: free) alternative if you know the user is on Verizon. If it's a single customer that you need this for, using a service like EZtexting that lets you buy blocks of message credits is the way to go.  The credits never expire to my knowledge (I've had a few unused credits for a couple years), so you'd only use the credits for this one customer.  Buy a block of credits for something small like $10, and you'll have a happy customer and less headaches.  For all of the people that you already know that the cell provider is Verizon, just keep using the email-to-text option, since it's free.