mobile transaction networks or mobile commerce service providers such as mBlox, OpenMArket, and Ericsson/IPX are really just aggregators that serve as gateways between you and your customers. they maintain relationships with the telcos so you don't have to as that is another ball of wax that you don't want to deal with. however, there's a price to pay for that service. here is a list of more mCSPs/MTNs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_commerce_service_provider
as ikai has already mentioned, they charge pretty significant fees for both short codes as well as monthly access -- you pay slightly less if you know the carrier since they don't have to do the lookup. however, as far as the OP goes, for simple apps where you can't afford the expenses of a complete system, emailing to an SMS gateway is the best way to go. here is a list of what those addresses are: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_carriers_providing_SMS_transit to maximize your 160-char limit, i would only put in the most critical mail headers... drop everything else. i've had to play this game before as i built an entire SMS service at a previous job... it occupied the space b/w an mCSP/MTN, our search engine, and our users on a cell phone. it was expensive, wasn't sexy, but cool to see our customers putting it to good use. cheers, -- wesley - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - "Core Python Programming", Prentice Hall, (c)2007,2001 "Python Fundamentals", Prentice Hall, (c)2009 http://corepython.com wesley.j.chun :: wesc+api-at-google-dot-com developer relations :: google app engine @app_engine :: googleappengine.blogspot.com -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Google App Engine" group. To post to this group, send email to google-appeng...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to google-appengine+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/google-appengine?hl=en.