In many case SMS can be implemented on the server by emailing a message to a
gateway, or posting an http message to a web server. It depends on the
country and the service provider. I dont know of any email gateways for
Belgium, they all seem to be http based.
Apart from Denmark, it is rare that a mobile phone owner has an email
address that corresponds directly to the phone.
I dont think implementing SMS is a big problem, there is all sorts of SMS
software available either for free or a couple of hundred dollars.
The point is that the client needs to be able to subscribe to a SMS
notification as such, even if the server actually implements the
notification by sending an email to a gateway. Since SMS are limited to 140
characters, the server would have to format the message as such, even if it
emails it to a gateway.
If a client requests an email notification, the server is not limited to 140
characters and the server can send a more detailed message.
Of course, SMS should not be mandatory since it seems to be less useful in
the US than in Europe. In Europe however it would be the notification
method of choice for humans. Why would I bother asking for an email
notification if I could have an SMS sent to my phone.
As an example, this site http://flightinfo.advalvas.be offers real time
updates to flight times at Brussels airport via SMS.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Carl-Uno Manros [mailto:carl@manros.com]
> Our assumption has been that most pager systems or phone systems have
> gateways from email and that a variation of using the email
> delivery method
> would actually be gatewayed to a handheld device.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Jun 29 2000 - 11:45:03 EDT