[SOLVED] SMS phone number?

[Stooney]

Not sure as to what it's called so I have no clue what to search for.  But how does one go about getting number that you can text which will redirect to whatever it's set to?

 

Like you can text google 'GOOGL' or chacha.com 'CHACHA'.  What are these types of numbers called?

[.josh]

I'm not 100% but I think that's something you have to set up with specific carriers.

[WalidAhmad]

These types of numbers are called "Common Short Codes", abbreviated to CSCs and more commonly known as "short codes".

 

Traditionally, Network Carriers have been using short codes to provide their subscribers with value added services for a very long time and, during those times, short codes on one network would access completely different services on others or simply not exist.

 

In recent years, however, Network Carriers came to realise the value and importance of providing services which can be accessed through the same short code on multiple networks and have had to collaborate to achieve this, which is how the word *Common* got thrown into the mix.

 

If you are willing to pay a lot of money, getting a number is easy. All you have to do is contact the administrator of the common short code initiative in your desired country (e.g. Neustar in USA, SCMG in UK, SMS+ in France etc.) and tell them about your program and pay the relevant fees.

 

The challenge, however, is not getting the number... its getting the number activated by the networks and setting up the connection with them. At this point, network carriers have no interest in dealing with and connecting to every Tom, Dick & Harry that comes to them and they pass this side of the business on to aggregators (note: I work for an aggregator). So the aggregator connects to the network and Tom, Dick & Harry connect to the aggregator.

 

So, to summarise, there are 2 sides to the process... the first is to get the number and the second is to get set up with an aggregator. One last point is that, dedicated short codes can be VERY expensive for most companies and what most aggregators tend to do is provide shared access to one of their existing short codes by means of a keyword (which is why a lot of adverts will tell you to "text KEYWORD to XXXX"). Not only is this *much* cheaper, but its a lot faster to get set up as dedicated codes can take up to 2-3 months to get set up.

 

I hope this all helps.

 

Walid

 

[Stooney]

Thank you very much WalidAhmad, that answered every question I had and then some.