SMS Gateway is your link between the World Wide Web and the world of cellular phones through which short text messages are sent. Basically it is a website that permits you to send SMS messages from a web browser to people who are within the limits of the cell that is serviced by the gateway. It permits the communication of SMS messages to and from mobiles from another media source. To put it simply, sending short e-mail messages to manifold mobile phone owners is the best example of a SMS Gateway.
These days thanks to the internet, even the bigger companies are trying to reach as many people as they can to canvas their products. This they do by sending bulk text alerts to a plethora of mobile phones. They avail of a database service for this purpose thereby targeting thousands of customers in one shot.
There are many companies on the internet that offer web to SMS solutions to various business houses so that they can get in touch with their clients by non-invasive and professional means. One more benefit of the SMS gateway other than mere bulk messaging is that companies can also send individual customized messages to their clients regarding various things like insurance premium payments, renewal of licenses, confirmation of train or air tickets or even bookings in hotels, arrival of goods etc. These messages reach the customers directly through their cell phones and get access to information almost immediately. Now an SMS gateway can also serve as an international gateway for those people who have roaming facility.
Different wireless telephone companies utilize different communication protocols and the gateway functions like an intermediary relay system that interprets the protocol of one company into another. Generally all operators in the wireless services utilize the SMS Gateway to connect the SMS centers or better called as SMSCs.
It is these SMSCs that are involved in procedures like steering, gathering and forwarding texts that come in on their way to various destinations. So you see the gateway acts more or less like a server that collects and sends individual messages through the right path so that the SMS messages can be sent either directly to or directly from customers without delay or loss of text by way of proper routing. There are many SMS gateways on the internet and some have more features than the others, and they are a great means to send and receive messages. clickatell and redoxygen are two examples.
