Volcano Ash
Why they didn't they send me a text?

With the news in the UK being dominated by the chaos caused by the movement of Icelandic Volcanic Ash across our skies it does surprise us how airlines and tour operators have still not fully embraced one of the simplest but most powerful ways to deliver customer service. No prices for guessing, it's SMS alerts!

For travel companies that did manage to alert travellers by SMS, the goodwill generated by being proactive with travellers has upheld their integrity in the midst very difficult circumstances. Now all they just need is 2 way messaging so that customers can respond to SMS alerts!

Given that Volcanologists believe that the volcano could continue to spew ash for possibly another 20 years to come (yes, 20!) it's never too late to be prepared. At RoutoMessaging we can provide cost efficient option to help keep customers informed through two way SMS including integration and development. Talk to us about it!

Routing Insights
Ported Numbers

Mobile Number Portability commonly referred to in its abbreviated form, MNP, allows subscribers to keep their existing telephone numbers when they switch operators. It, literally, means that numbers are portable from operator to operator - whether that operator is a mobile or fixed line provider.

Katarina, our Routing Manager says: “From a routing standpoint for aggregators or customers who choose to route messages through multiple providers, MNP present a challenge. Specifically, many routing platforms simply route messages to specific providers based on the operator prefix of the number. However, should a message be sent to a number that is ported to an operator that costs the provider more to reach then a high price can maybe charged depending on the provider's charging policy.”

RoutoMessaging however, commits to delivering to all ported numbers belonging to any of its 800+ operator in coverage without charging a higher price if the number is ported to an operator that is more expensive to reach. Whilst cheap specialists may offer cheaper prices (albeit a service level to reflect this) higher charges for ported numbers can significantly outweigh this apparent benefit.

How can I avoid unexpected porting charges? You can use an HLR query services to find out the correct operator that the number belongs to. A number of such services exist, which query the operator's home location register (HLR) over the SS7 signaling network in order to determine the current network of a specified mobile phone number prior to attempted routing of messaging or voice traffic. RoutoMessaging provides one of the most accurate HLR Services available today cover over 200 destinations including all numbers in the USA.

We're on the Social Media Bandwagon!
Twitter, Facebook, Blog

In the next few weeks start to tweet and socially network! We're looking forward to your following on our daily tweets on Twitter and keeping up to date with us on Facebook about new developments, interesting offers and things that matter in our industry.

Whilst we're on the topic of social media, have you checked out the recent posts on our blog? Get some great ideas drawn from our pool of experience of how SMS is being used in so many parts of our lives including alerts from your washing machine!

Techie Update
Visual Basic Script

We already provide a range of ready-made scripts that are available to help you connect to our SMS gateway over HTTP through your chosen programming language. Recently, we introduced a VB.NET script to save you valuable time. Our in-house developers are always keen to hear from external developers about anything that optimizes our developer friendliness - if you have something to say, please share it with us.