Service provider company Autopage Cellular has clinched a deal with specialist SMS company, Mobile Internet Gateway (MIG), which will see the deployment of a service provider bulk SMS Internet technology system in SA.
Subscribers to Autopage Cellular, which holds over 450 000 units in the growing South African cellular market, will be able to set up, administer, send and receive all their bulk SMS messages via an Internet site.
"What makes the technology unique is the fact that for the first time everything will be done on a pay-as-you-use basis, with the cost being added to the cellular subscribers` normal monthly cellphone bill," says Ian Wylde, IT Director of Autopage Cellular.
Autopage subscribers can, by logging onto the http://sms.autopage.co.za Web page, conduct all their bulk SMS messaging without investing a cent in any software or other capital outlay. All three cellular networks are served.
"This online service is available exclusively to Autopage subscribers," says Wylde.
"It is ideal for marketing, administration, promotions, scheduling and any use you can think of for bulk SMS messaging," says Derek Fingleson, MD of MIG, which provides the operational backend to the new service. "Best of all, the cost of a bulk SMS message is less than half of a normal SMS message."
A normal cellphone to cellphone SMS message at peak time could cost up to 86c, while an SMS message sent using the MIG designed system, at any time of day or night, costs only 40c. The cost of calling a cellphone to remind a person by voice will quickly run to well over R4 per call, quite literally 10 times the cost per unit of a bulk SMS message.
"In addition, bulk SMS messages can be fully personalised, with field codes being filled by recipients` individual details, obviating the need to type out separate messages to each recipient," Wylde continued. The service also allows for two-way communications, enabling the user to receive and process answers.
Groups can be created on an individual basis, or databanks can be uploaded onto the system in CSV file format. The service also includes a full status report of each and every message sent, audit trails of sent and received messages, and receipts confirming dates and times of delivery.
The authorisation and billing procedure is also quick and clean, with no separate contracts or other paperwork being required.
SA now leads the world in this technology, and this product launch is bound to stir international interest, Fingleson concludes.
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