Twilio launches UK SMS at $0.04 in/out | Hacker News Reader

Twilio launches UK SMS at $0.04 in/out

twilio.com

51 pointshighace19 comments

Awesome work Twilio, been looking forward to being able to play around with SMS as much as I have calls without having to use a US number.

Important Note for non-UK Customers: if you would like to use a UK number for SMS please note that this is a domestic messaging product for sending messages to UK numbers only. Additionally, we are not able to guarantee delivery of international senders sending messages from non-UK phone numbers or from locaitons outside the UK.

This isn't something I've come across before - have I just ignored it from other services, or is this an issue unique to Twilio? Not that it will be of much importance I don't think.

Its not a huge issue, but we found some customers were getting confused and since the majority of our customer base is still in the U.S. right now we're trying to make things as clear as possible. In the ideal world, you'd be able to seamlessly send text messages anywhere in the world, but that's now how it works with Twilio... yet.

Works out to 2.6pence each. Which is exceptional for outgoing, but charging for incoming as well is a new one, we don't really do that here.

Its actually fairly standard practice for bulk SMS providers to charge for receiving messages as well.

The UK based sms service I use doesn't. But theres a monthly fee for the number. I'm sure this was the case with others when I was shopping around as well (again, UK based).

At Twilio are focused on creating a platform that enables developers to build value-added applications for their customers. To this end, we have never offered a product that allows developers to send out messages without a number to receive replies. We believe two-way messaging offers our developers the ability to create unique application experiences and has real value to our developer community. As such, we choose to be agressive with cheap outbound pricing and charge for incoming messages.

This is our first foray in to SMS outside of North America though so please send me feedback on your thoughts at patrick [at] twilio

Of the UK services I've seen, none charge for incoming SMS.

The 2nd on my Google search is http://www.textover.com/incomingsms.html which states:

  We do not charge per message received.

#1 and #3 on the Google search were both a bit vague, mentioning only a fixed rate monthly charge of £5 and £7.50 per month for a number to receive messages on.

They didn't mention whether they charge per message received, but every other price is unambiguous so I'd probably read it as them not charging for receipt of messages beyond the line rental but for the sake of argument didn't want to jump to that conclusion.

The Twilio price is good though, I was finding outbound rates closer to 4p per SMS and only dropping down to 2p per SMS with serious quantity paid in advance.

The charge is not for the phone service, but for the routing service Twilio offers.

From the documentation, it seems that you need to set a "from" number when sending an SMS. Does anyone know why this would be the case? Is it possible to send no-reply style SMS messages with this service?

I'm thinking along the lines of phone number verification, and I wouldn't want to be charged if people accidentally replied to the message.

All messages from twilio MUST originate from a real phone number that you have purchased from twilio.

If you do not wish to receive replies you can clear the URL associated with your number.

Thanks for the clarification.

Just to confirm (as it's a real number), if a user sends an SMS to that number, but no URL is associated with it, will I be charged? I would assume not, but worth checking!

Nope, you won't be charged if you remove the URL associated with that number

Ireland has also been added but unfortunately Twilio doesn't support SMS in Ireland yet.

edit: Also Austria, Denmark, France and Poland: http://www.twilio.com/blog/2012/01/twilio-launches-phone-num...

If it's SMS you're specifically looking for WebText.com† supports Ireland (and is based there), as well as most other countries.

†API docs: http://www.webtext.com/api-documentation/

FWIW Nexmo charges $0.0376 per SMS in the UK (http://nexmo.com/pricing/index.html) and supports over 200 countries. (I am not affiliated w/ Nexmo.)

Their web site also thinks it's still 2011.

If you are so inclined, you could take the DIY route and go straight to the source: http://voxbone.com

Don't forget bandwidth.com. That's one of the main providers Twilio uses in the US for all their local numbers.

I'm not sure what the big deal is. Tropo has much better international coverage and costs less.

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