Direct and Indirect Connections

Connection Software have Direct Connections to Mobile Network Operators (MNOs )around the world. However with several hundred MNOs worldwide it is not sensible to connect to each one individually and we therefore also have many indirect connections.

The advantages of a Direct Connection

Having a direct connection does provide benefits in that we can usually provide a better quality of service via a Direct Connection and we may be able to offer "Virtual Mobile Numbers" from the MNO that we connect to. Virtual Mobile Numbers as are "local" mobile numbers that people can text to and the messages are then sent back to us via a reliable high speed connection. Virtual Mobile Numbers are far preferable to hosting a SIM.

Making a Direct Connection

Connecting to a MNO is technically straightforward for us. If the MNO is also experienced in providing SMPP connections over the Internet then the system could be working in 15 minutes.

However things are seldom as simple as that principally because:

1. The MNO may not be able to offer an SMPP connection over TCP/IP. We have waited 6 months for some operators to provide that connectivity.
2. Experienced operators will often request a full Acceptance Test Procedure to confirm how the link responds to failures at any point. This requires significant testing which may take a week or so to complete.

Connection Charges

As a result of these unknowns, it is quite difficult to give a fixed price for connecting to a new MNO. We need to know more about the technical and commercial arrangements between Connection Software and the MNO in order to be able to quote a firm price. However we can give a "worst case" price for us to connect to a new MNO and that is GBP £5000.

Reducing the Connection Charges

The following would all help to reduce our Connection Charge. Of course you may or may not be able to offer us any or all of these:

1. Telephone and email access to a named experienced telecom engineer with authority to establish and maintain an SNPP connection between Connection Software and the MNO.
2. Permission for us to pass traffic from our other customers via the MNO for local delivery at an attractive price. Clearly this needs to be lower than the price that we already pay for indirect delivery. We do require full support for Delivery Receipts.
3. Permission for us to pass traffic, via the MNO, for delivery to other MNOs that they have an Interworking Agreement with. This can help us to increase our coverage and improve the resilience of our delivery network by providing increasingly diverse routing for us. Again we require full support for Delivery Receipts.
4. The ability for us to deliver binary traffic as well as plain text.
5. Access to a block of Virtual Mobile Numbers that we can offer our customers.
6. Access to Premium Rate services provided by the Mobile Network Operator.

If you can offer us the above then we may well be able to reduce our Connection Charges since it will be in our interest to establish and maintain connectivity.

Ongoing charges

These will depend on what you need from us - for example in terms of reporting. If you do not require any reporting then the ongoing charges are likely to be very low. Please specify what you need from us and we will be glad to confirm our prices. Here are some examples of what you might require:

Your Account Manager will be glad to discuss your requirements in detail.