Are SMS messages going to the birds? Looks like it!
Seriously though, this article shows you how powerful SMS messages can be. One highly adventurous eagle, named Min, was outfitted with a tracker that sends SMS messages back to home base, according to Min’s geo location. What a cool way to use messaging!
The challenge? Well, Min strayed into new countries. Min burned through the entire scientific program’s SMS messaging budget in a massive SMS blast. Why the high budget burn? When Min crossed country borders, the eagle moved to a new SMS carrier, with much higher costs per message.
You see, there’s no unlimited data allowance when it comes to business messaging, or eagle messaging for that matter.
SMS Messages vary by Carrier and Country
For business, commercial scientific and other messaging, carriers charge a fee, or a message credit, for each message they deliver.
The cost of each message/credit varies from carrier to carrier and country to country. Which is how Min the eagle got into big budget troubles.
- Min flew around Kazakhstan for a while, but the SMSs didn’t send.
- When Min crossed the border into Iran, all of the backlog of SMS messages carrying geo data were sent in a massive blast.
- Simply by crossing a border, the cost of the SMS messages Min sent home more than doubled. (The price per SMS in Kazakhstan is about .30$, but each SMS from Iran cost .77+$.)
Luckily, the carrier and a GoFundMe campaign lifted Min and the team out of their budget challenge. You might not be so lucky.
The Bottom Line
Min’s story is an example of why we spend so much time working to understand our customers’ country and carrier needs. Everyone talks about regulatory compliance, but carrier compliance can cause your business some pretty big headaches as well. We want to be sure our customers don’t have a surprise, like Min. We want you to soar with messaging programs that don’t break your budget.
Download this guide, How Messaging Works, to get the important details we share with our customers. Our free gift to you!
