GFI Fax Maker - Sending and receiving SMS

Introduction to the SMS gateway

FAXmaker includes an e-mail to SMS gateway, allowing users to send SMS messages. SMS is very popular, and is increasingly used for business purposes as well.


What is SMS?

The Short Message Service (SMS), also referred to as texting is the ability to send and receive text messages to and from mobile telephones. The text can comprise of words or numbers or an alphanumeric combination. SMS was created as part of the GSM Phase 1 standard. The first short message is believed to have been sent in December 1992 from a Personal Computer (PC) to a mobile phone on the Vodafone GSM network in the UK. Each short message is up to 160 characters is length when Latin alphabets are used, and 70 characters in length when non-Latin alphabets such as Arabic and Chinese are used.


Why use an SMS gateway?

SMS messages can be sent from any GSM mobile phone, as well as from several internet based service providers. However, using a central company SMS gateway has many advantages:

• Sending messages from Outlook is much faster than from a mobile phone.
• Sending messages from a computer allows you to use the Outlook contacts list.
• Sending messages from a computer allows you to keep a copy of SMS messages sent.
• A web based SMS provider means additional administration costs and means users will have to login to the service with their user account. Additional steps for the user and additional administration for the administrator.- If you don't have a company mobile, the user would have to pay for SMS messages sent privately.