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Message Centre Connections - High Volume Messaging

What are SMSC, MMSCs and message centres , how do I get high volume messaging, who provides these services?

Every SMS text message and MMS multimedia message transmitted over the cellular network goes through a "store and forward box" called Message Centre. In the case of SMS this is called a Short Message Service Centre or SMSC, and for MMS it is a Multimedia Message Service Centre or MMSC.

SMSCs and MMSCs reside on the mobile network operator. There are a number of vendors of such service centres (LogicaCMG, Ericsson, Nokia, Sema).

The mobile network operators (Vodafone/O2/Orange etc.) control the access to their message centres. Access is usually over a TCP/IP or Internet wire protocol. The wire protocol varies from SMSC/MMSC vendor. NCL cover most popular ones such as CIMD/SMPP/UCP/MM7.

Wire protocols like these can deliver message thoughputs of upto 100 messages per second, however operators usually throttle this down to as low as 10 per second depending on the service level agreement.

Setup costs for connecting directly to an operator are quite high. Some are as high as 3K per month. It is only worth getting a connection directly with a mobile operator if you have really high volume messaging (like 100,000 messages per month.

An alternative is to go through an aggregator or SMS service provider. Some are listed below. Aggregators have connections with multiple operators and distribute these services (and costs) over a higher number of clients that transmit lower message volumes. The setup costs are usually considerably lower also. The aggregator makes a margin on each message transaction.