Guys,

I thought this was an easy search but apparently that is not the case.

I am looking for a "mass SMS sender", but this has nothing to do with mass marketing efforts.

This is a device I want to use to allow Public Safety department employees in my organization to reach out all employees with SMSs in case of a severe emergency.

There are several cloud-based services, all designed for mass marketing, but I'd rather not use them for various reasons (more on this if you're curious), and simply stick to a device to be placed in our server room. We' be happy to pay the little cost of a SIM card with our main mobile phone provider, and place it into the device.

Ideally, I'd like this device to offer some interface to allow non-IT people to update the internal contact list on a regular basis, and insure it is always current. Of course, this is a device that we hope will never be used other than to insure the contact list is current, but that can send send hundreds of sms s reliably in little time if needed.

I'd have expected to find a plethora of devices with web interfaces allowing .csv or .xls(s) import features. And, I do remember seeing few of such "sms gateways" years ago; but all I could find today is cloud-based mass marketing-oriented services.

Do any of you have recommendations?

Thank you!

What about a computer with a cellular card, or a phone tethered to a computer with a USB cable?

Though I don't know anything about software for that configuration, I'm sure it must exist, or, you could figure out the API of the cellular card and roll your own. At my old job, I had all the necessary resources at my fingertips to write the software.

Here's a youtube video showing a piece of software sending a mass SMS from a computer via a tethered phone. From the looks of the software it looks like it'll support multiple tethered phones.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFbXjLvcjZg

Don't know if that particular software is any good, I'm just linking it as a proof of concept that this configuration can work and does have some kind of software support out there.

At work, we have a system that sends out IMs and texts to all employees at the site (usually used for weather alerts and once for a chemical spill). I don't know if it is a homegrown tool or COTS, but searching for "Desktop Enterprise Notification System" turned up a bunch of results that might help.

It looks like a lot of them are service providers instead of just software providers. Maybe something like MissionMode would work for you?

A long time ago, I'd rolled-my-own temperature monitoring system for my server room (back in my sysadmin days) and it sent me an SMS to my phone. But I didn't need a cellular device to do the sending.

If I recall correctly, I was taking advantage of a feature on my phone's carrier: The ability to receive emails as texts, if the emails were sent to <phonenumber>@att.net or something like that. So, for instance, all I had to do was program my temperature monitoring system to send an email to [email protected] and then my phone would receive an SMS text with the email subject line and a MMS attachment.

I wonder how many wireless carriers, if any, still do the same thing?

My phone doesn't get pictures, so I get emails from phones (with pictures and ridicule). They usually use the <phonenumber>@verizon.net email, but I am unsure if my responses ever actually go through.

Thanks guys, I'll give a look at the solutions you mentioned and use better search keywords!

Beware that when you actually do send the bulk SMS messages the service provider(s) may block the message if their systems perceive it a spam.

There may be some way to register in advance or forewarn them prior to actually sending the messages.

There may even be an existing infrastructure to submit bulk addresses with the messages, probably a service primarily intended for public services and emergencies.

You don't want a solution that only works when you test it at small scale but fails at full load, or only works once at full scale before it gets blocked.

If you know the number and the provider, every major provider in the US has a way to email a specific address and they convert it to an sms. For example, here's the instructions for AT&T: Email to text. One piece of software I wrote simply looped through the email addresses and sent one in the proper format based on the provider.

I used that once upon a time, too. But it gets tough to manage a large list in an era of BYOD and number portability.

How many numbers are in the distro list?

Have you looked at everbridge? I'm on the receiving end of several alerts through them.

-jk

So, I've been working on a Energy Monitoring and Management system, custom made, for our company. It turns out we may use its SMS notification system for our emergency notification purposes. I'll only find out in the next weeks, so, we'll see what happens.

Whatever else, I can tell you they've got throughput! I get some notices both via email and sms, and they come with moments of each other. My wife gets them about the same time, too.

Our local school system rolled their own alert system, and notices are arrive over about 15 minutes. Of course, they rarely have true emergencies, and use the police system when they do.

-jk