Hey everyone,
I am curious as how to how much trouble / money it would be for me to be able to accept incoming text messages to a number, which I would then pass to a server side application in PHP. I'd ultimately send SMS messages back out via email addresses.
Does anyone know any good Canadian providers to accept incoming SMS messages? How much do these cost generally? Is the cost and effort worth it for personal projects?
Thank you,
I am looking for the same thing. Found www . smsgateway . ca so far. Spoke to them and they sound good with reasonable prices. Haven't tried it yet though.
Clickatell seems to offer incoming SMS support in Canada: www.clickatell.com
Edit: I'm sorry I think I may have misread that page. Looks like it's showing costs for messages sent from Canada but the possible number ranges are +44 (UK), +61 (Australia), +45 (Denmark) and +46 (Sweden). So the sender will pay international SMS rates for sending to your number.
For personal projects it might be easier to get hold of a cheap phone and prepaid SIM and plug that onto a computer somewhere and write a script to pull the SMSes, usually by sending AT commands to a virtual COM port.
For a hosted solution there is usually a monthly cost to rent the number (higher for a "short code" number). Then there is the charge for each incoming message.
Edit: Clickatell do seem to offer a shortcode service in Canada. $1000 setup and $1200 monthly rental.