The Programmable Text Messaging Server

We take email for granted these days. At home we use email courtesy of a service provided by our Internet Service Provider. At work, most companies provide employees with the ability to communicate by email with each other, with business partners and with customers, by running an email server.

But often the people we want to communicate with are on the move. Slot the Selenium SMS text messaging server next to your company email server and you can do just that.

Selenium SMS can be used direct from the desktop using only a web browser, can be integrated with your email system or can be integrated with other software applications using the product's extensive API (Application Programmer's Interface). It's easy to use, performs well, is highly scalable and it's affordable too.

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The SMPP Access Server

SMPP (Short Message Peer to Peer Protocol) is a telecommunications protocol whose purpose is to allow applications software to send and receive SMS messages by interacting with telecommunications servers called SMSCs (Short Message Service Centres). There are numerous protocols in existence that have the same intent, but SMPP has the greatest market share and has become recognised as a de facto standard.

Users of SMS services, whether provided by Network Operators or by SMS Aggregators, recognise the importance of selecting a service provider that allows their applications to connect using SMPP. The benefit to such users is that of portability. Developing an application costs money and having to substantially change it just because the choice of service provider has changed is undesirable for many reasons.

SMS Aggregators that offer SMPP based connectivity, therefore, will improve their appeal compared to those service providers that only offer proprietary interfaces and will present a more serious and mature image to the market place, since SMPP is regarded as a "serious" telecommunications protocol, usually associated with SMSCs which tend only to be owned by network operators.

Selenium SMPP Access allows SMS service providers to add an SMPP interface to their existing messaging platform so that customers can connect to the service using SMPP. The product also works "out of the box" with Selenium SMS, so SMPP can also be used as a Selenium SMS "content connector".

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The Message Console

SMS gateways tend to need work to integrate them with other systems before you can start to realise their benefits and actually start sending text messages. Selenium SMS comes with a web based messaging console called Selenium MC at no extra cost so you can start sending and receiving text messages right away. With an Inbox and Outbox, using Selenium MC is familiar and easy. International character sets are fully supported and long messages can be sent with no special effort on the part of the user.

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The SMS Application Testing Tool

Increasingly, businesses want to use SMS text messaging, and to use it in increasingly diverse and creative ways. This means that software applications have to be written which can send and/or receive SMS text messages, or existing applications have to be enhanced to give them that capability. In either case this requires software developers to implement some means of having these applications interact with a mobile telecomunications network.

SMPP (Short Message Peer to Peer Protocol) is fast becoming the de facto standard in the connecting of SMS messaging applications to mobile telecommunications networks. Opting to use SMPP is a smart move since numerous telecommunications software companies and service providers support it, so you don't have to worry about being locked into one network. But for developers, testing their applications can be problematic, since it's rare for the average I.T. department to have it's own SMSC (Short Message Service Centre) sitting in the machine room!

This is where SMPPSim comes in. SMPPSim is a software simulator that can play the part of an SMPP based SMSC and which is designed specifically to help software developers test their SMPP enabled applications. SMPPSim has been available since 2001 and has been downloaded many thousands of times. Examples of downloaders include Nokia, Ericsson, British Telecom, Lucent, Verizon Wireless, BellSouth, Cingular, France Telecom, Siemens, Lotus, HP, BEA, LogicaCMG, Vodacom, Oracle, t-mobile and IBM to name but a few.

Best of all, SMPPSim is both Open Source and free of charge.

You can obtain SMPPSim from the downloads page.

Read the SMPPSim user guide for further details >