Here's what industry insiders say about SMPP SMS gateway

An SMPP SMS gateway is one of the most widely used SMS gateways in the world. It is often preferred by many business owners due to the distinct technical advantages that they provide. The distinct technical advantages offered by this gateway have naturally increased the demand for an SMPP Provider that can help business firms to send bulk quantities of SMS messages for their own requirements. The acronym SMPP actually stands for “Short Message Peer to Peer Protocol”. The SMPP SMS Gateway is used for sending and receiving messages to and from GSM, iDEN, UMTS, TDMA and CDMA cell phones. SMPP is a level-7 TCP/IP protocol and it is widely known for facilitating faster delivery of SMS messages.

By using the SMPP protocol for sending SMS messages instead of using a GSM modem, one can have the following advantages:

• Since the SMPP messaging protocol is based on TCP/IP, there is no need for GSM hardware;
• The users can send SMSs to only a simple short code, which is not possible while sending SMS to a standard GSM phone;
• The SMPP messaging protocol provides with high throughput (up to around 200 messages per second); 
• It is also possible to assign an alphanumeric sender address with the SMPP messaging protocol

SMPP is extensively used by various business clients for connecting to a Short Message Service Centre or SMSC. In SMPP terms, a client is known as Extended Short Message Entity or ESME. The SMSC's can even exchange data by using a reliable SMPP connection. The messages that are sent to the SMSC are known as Mobile Terminated or MT messages, since they are directly sent to the mobile phone. The messages that are received from the SMSC are known as Mobile Originated or MO messages as they originate from the sender’s mobile phone.

When an ESME chooses to establish a connection by using an SMPP SMS Gateway, it can be accomplished in three modes. These include the Transmitter, where the ESME entity can only submit the messages to a SMSC; the Receiver, where the ESME entity can only receive the messages or the delivery reports from a SMSC; and the Transceiver, where the EMSE entity can send as well as receive the messages to/from the SMSC.

There are a number of applications for which the SMPP SMS gateway solutions can be used:

• For sending voicemail alerts to the mobile users;
• To aid in information services, like sending traffic jam alerts, stock exchanges alerts or the weather forecasts;
• For sending SMS notifications to the mobile users when the server is down; they can also be used for sending SMS messages that perform specific functions;
• It can be used for sending MMS notifications, particularly when the users pay for Java applications and ringtones, the download location can be send by a WAP Push message or MMS notification;
• It can be used for the purpose of voting and for processing votes from the mobile users;
• For telemetry applications