Send SMS messages
from any email address. No software to install or learn
– simple.
How does email to SMS work?
Send an email to
mobile_number@sms.obt.com.au and we do the rest.
SMS replies are sent back to the sender via email.
With OBT’s Mission Control you stay in complete control
over who is allowed to send SMS messages. Various settings
for message formatting, account validation, amount of messages
or destination restrictions are provided.
Advantages of email to SMS
- You type the message on a proper keyboard and not a fiddly
phone.
- Send one message to many recipients with one single email.
- Have emails forwarded to your phone as an SMS or be automatically
notified as soon as an important email arrives without human
intervention.
- People can keep you updated when you are away from your
computer without having to call or disturb you.
- You can send SMS messages all over the world.
- Our built in network monitoring system allows you to be
automatically notified when issues on a network arise.
How much does it cost?
Every SMS is charged at $0.30 (GST inclusive) and there
is a minimum spend of $10.00 per month. There are no signup
or license fees.
A valid credit card is required when signing up and you
must agree to the card being automatically charged every
month with the relevant charges and to the Terms and Conditions
governing the use and provision of this service. To view
the Terms and Conditions click HERE.
How Do I Get Started?
Download the application form
HERE and fax it back to us on (02) 9286 3444. We will
notify you via email once the account has been set up (usually
within a few hours, but allow up to 48 hours for the setup).
Frequently Asked Email to SMS Questions
OBT will send a notification that your account has been
set up via email. In that email we provide you with a username
and password for the use of our online Mission Control.
Once inside the Mission Control, you will be able to customise
your service, view usage reports and find help on various
features.
(1) Can I allow other people to send SMS messages
using my account?
Yes. In Mission Control, go to the Services Tab, select
Email 2 SMS on the left hand side and add any email address
you wish under “Valid Email Accounts”. Any email
address you add there will be authorised to send SMS messages
through the OBT SMS gateway and your account will be charged.
In Mission Control you can also set the feature that whenever
an email is sent to the Email 2 SMS gateway where the subject
line includes your “SMS key” (which is identical
to the password for Mission Control) we assume that the
sender is authorised to use the account and the email address
is added to the list of valid sender emails. This feature
can be enabled or disabled in Mission Control.
Please note that once you handed your Mission Control Password
to somebody, that person will have access to Mission Control.
To avoid unauthorised access to Mission Control you can
change your username for access in Mission Control’s
“My Account” tab.
(2) What if I want everybody in my organisation
to be authorised to use this service and I do not want to
type in hundreds of email addresses?
Please let us know by sending an email to sms_support@obt.com.au.
We will arrange for ALL emails originating from one domain
name to be authorised on your account. Please note that
it is either ALL or none. In other words, we will enable
ALL emails from …@yourdomain.com.au to be authorised.
We cannot enable ALL except for mary@yourdomain.com.au and
joe@yourdomain.com.au. It remains your responsibility to
maintain control over your account.
(3) What safeguards are there to avoid a possible
cost blow out?
You can set a maximum number of SMS that can be sent in
one day through your account (My Account Tab >Credit
Overview)
You have control over which email address is allowed to
use the SMS gateway (Services Tab >Valid Email Accounts)
You can restrict the service to only deliver SMS messages
to certain mobile phone numbers (Services Tab > Restrict
Mobile Destinations)
You can restrict the service to only accept emails from
a certain domain (Services Tab >Only Accept Emails from
Domain)
By default your account is restricted to 500 SMS (1000 for
existing OBT ASP customers) messages every month. If you
need to increase this number, please contact us on
sms_support@obt.com.au.
PLEASE NOTE: You remain responsible for all charges that
are incurred through this service. If it was sent through
your account, you will be charged for it.
(4) Can I send an SMS to anywhere in the world?
Certainly. Just put a + sign followed by the country code
in front of the mobile phone number (dropping the first
zero of the mobile number). For example you want to send
an SMS to a New Zealand Mobile phone. The country code for
New Zealand is 64. The mobile number is 0339 123 123. Send
an email to +64339123123@sms.obt.com.au.
(5) What happens when someone replies to an SMS
I sent via this service?
SMS replies will be delivered to the email address that
originally sent the SMS for up to six days. If you need
this feature to be extended, we are able to provide you
with a fixed number SMS replies get sent to. There are additional
charges involved for this number. Please contact us on sms_support@obt.com.au
for more information.
(6) How many users can send from one account?
There is no limit to the number of users of an SMS account.
You can add as many Valid Email Accounts as you like in
Mission Control > Services Tab > Email 2 SMS >
Valid Email Accounts.
(7) Where can I view usage reports?
To view your usage reports and message logs, please login
to Mission Control and go to the Reports section. All reports
can also be downloaded as csv (Excel) files.
(8) What is the maximum length of a message?
The maximum length of an SMS message is 160 characters.
In the Services Tab of your Mission Control you specify
it that messages longer than 160 characters get split into
multiple SMS. Otherwise any part of the message longer than
160 characters gets chopped off.
Please be careful with the feature of splitting long messages
into multiple SMS's. You will be billed for every SMS that
gets sent, not for every email. One email can result in
several SMS's if this feature is turned on.
(9) How does the recipient know who in my organisation
sent the SMS? The Telephone number shown as the sender does
not mean anything to the recipients.
In Mission Control – Services Tab – Email 2
SMS you can chose to add the sender’s email address
either at the beginning or the end of each message.
(10) What happens to the signatures and disclaimers
at the end of some emails?
We recommend you remove signatures and disclaimers from
the end of your messages when sending an email to SMS. Our
software attempts to be smart enough to recognise signatures
and remove them. This smartness is based on recognisable
delimiters that separate the signatures from the main message
body like a series of underscores or a horizontal line.
It is however best not to rely on this and to remove any
signatures / disclaimers manually before sending.
(11) How fast do messages arrive?
Most messages arrive within 10 - 30 seconds. However we
cannot guarantee this speed all the time. If your network
operator is experiencing network problems your messages
may be delayed.
(12) How do I send one email to several mobiles?
The same way you would send one email to several recipients,
just add all email addresses to various mobile into the
To field of your email message.
You can set up distribution lists inside your email client
to make it easier to send emails to several mobiles at the
same time. Alternatively, you can set up recipient inside
your mission Control (Services Tab > Groups and Contacts).
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