This may seem like a dumb question, but I am a little confused. I’ve used playsms with great results and using NEXMO as my gateway. Although, NEXMO’s rates are pretty good, I’d like to try the GSM modem route. The question I have is this… If I buy a supported modem with let’s say Kannel or SMSTools, does the SIM card on the modem need to be activated? That is, do I have to subscribe it to a carrier to be able to send/receive SMS? Or do you just buy the modem, set up Kannel or SMSTools and you’re ready to go?
If the SIM card doesn’t have to be activated with a carrier, the modem will be a good alternative, however, if it does need to through a carrier, the NEXMO route will be cheaper in the long run.
I believe that one has to activate the SIM card with a carrier.
I use a T-Mobile SIM card and pay about $20 per month on a business account. You may have to pay up to around $30 on a prepaid SIM card like I previously did. This allows me to text an unlimited amount, but T-Mobile does throttle texts to around 600 or so per hour. That’s my estimate, at least.
Please let me know if you have any other questions.
hi, sim card must be activated, otherwise you are not able to communicate with your provider (except emergency calling).
however, from my perspective there is no throttling texts, it is a physical bottleneck, because sending of one sms take 5-12 seconds.
regards,
andre
Thanks for the response. That clarifies things for me. Most of the videos, docs, etc, I read on using GSM modems never mention the fact that you have to activate it with a provider. I was already assuming that as I didn’t see how else it would work. I think I’ll stick with NEXMO for now, at .0052 per text it is cheaper (based on my workload) than activating a SIM card with a provider.