Prerequisites to using Kannel for sending SMS

Question

I'm trying to use Kannel for sending SMS. Reading the documentation I came across this line:

To set up an SMS gateway, you need, in addition to a machine running Kannel, access to (an operator's) SMS center, or possibly to multiple ones.

Does anyone know to go about getting this access?

http://www.kannel.org/download/kannel-userguide-snapshot/userguide.html

Answer 1

You need to directly connect to the operators you need to send messages to - which is a costly affair, and in addition you'd likely need to have a capability to determine the recipient numbers' ownership, i.e., which operator to route the message to.

Much easier option would be to do a Google search for an SMS gateway, of which there are quite many but of course you'd need to pay for every message you send.

The cheapest option, if you have low volumes, is to get a SIM card and hook up a mobile phone or a GSM modem up to your server, and send messages through that (Kannel has the capability.) However, your throughput will be quite limited and your operator will likely block you if you send too much messages this way.

Answer 2

If you just want to do some development without spending the time/money for an SMSC connection, you can use Kannel with a GSM modem (with a SIM card) to send/receive SMS messages as well.

Answer 3

For development purposes, you can use a fake SMSC or a simulated SMSC (with SMPP capabilities) configuration.

The latest version of Kannel comes bundled with a Fake SMSC program that you can use for quick verifications (check the Kannel user guide for how to setup and run tests with a fake smsc --- http://www.kannel.org/userguide.shtml).

Also you can use a SMSC (with SMPP capabilities) simulator software to mimic (with some randomness) a real SMSC server. Examples would be the Selenium Software SMPPSim (http://www.seleniumsoftware.com/downloads.html) or the Mobicents/Telestax SMSCGateway (https://code.google.com/p/smscgateway/) software.

From experience, I find SMPPSim easier to setup,configure and run.

Answer 4

You can use Kannel as SMS-Gateway. In order to do so, you need to add smsc details in kannel.conf file. You need to mention the smsc details in the section 'group = smsc'.

For example,

**group = smsc
smsc = http
#smsc-id = smsc1 // you can uncomment it if you have multiple smscs
#allowed-smsc-id = smsc1
#denied-smsc-id = smsc2 // if any
system-type = kannel
port = 80
host = www.abc.com // the hostname of your operator, can be asked from the operator
smsc-username = abc
smsc-password = ******* // operator will give you all the details
send-url = "http://www[dot]abc[dot]com:8080/sendsms"

**

And to use the desired smsc just mention the smsc-id in your link for sending the message. "http://localhost:13000/cgi-bin/sendsms?smsc=smsc1&...."