Researching and comparing your SMS A2P providers options before deciding the right partner is very important in considering the impact that this technology will bring to your business. Investing in the right partners and technology can help your organization  achieve cost-efficiency, save time, reduce the risks of performance, and meet all the requirements with the minimum CAPEX. With the prediction of more than 2.8 trillion messages will be sent by 2022, according to Mobilesquared, choosing the right provider is now becoming more important than ever. Here are some criteria that you need to consider.

Check the coverage area of the provider

Different businesses might have different areas that they want to reach with SMS A2P. This is also applied to SMS A2P providers. Different providers might have different areas of focus, and therefore provide different coverage of area options. For example, Telkom Indonesia wants to blast SMS about its services only to Southeast Asia. Therefore it is important for Telkom to liaise with SMS A2P providers that can cover this region. To ensure your message is well received by your target audience, the first thing that you need to do in choosing the right provider for you is to understand the region(s) covered by the service providers of your choice. Why is this important? Because no matter how good the service offered by the providers, if it doesn’t cover your intended area, your messages will be dead on arrival and not be received by your audience.

Explore the business scheme and connection type options

After agreeing on the coverage, you then need to explore your options and match it with your requirement. For businesses, having a provider that can offer a postpaid or pay-as-you-use business scheme will be very appealing options. Because it offers more flexibility and gives fi0cial advantages of not having to do an upfront investment. Not only that, companies that are considering investing in SMS A2P need to also explore the connection type with other mobile network operators and understand the type of coverage that is offered by the providers. In general, there are two types of coverage for SMS A2P - direct and indirect connection. Direct connection allows a direct pathway between SMS A2P provider and mobile network options. While indirect connection will require the provider to route their connection to an operator through another SMS provider. This will impact the delivery time and cause the delivery report to not be sent to the original senders. It is also important to check if the providers are the aggregators of SMS A2P services of many operators. Having a provider that can aggregate your operator options will save you time and effort to not having to connect with different operators one by one.

Ensure the SMS gateway latency

Last but not least, it is also very important for companies to check the SMS gateway latency before investing in SMS A2P providers. Latency is the period of time required for providers to perform multiple actions, and therefore determine how fast the SMS is processed and transmitted. If the provider’s SMS gateway cannot process and send the messages within milliseconds, then it is not worthed to invest in this provider and having them as your technology partner.

After considering all the criteria mentioned above, you can then start comparing the price and choosing a provider that can get you the best value for money to your business. Investing in SMS A2P Indonesia, you need to ensure that you are engaging with the right provider that you can trust. Get as much detail and information as possible, do your extensive research, and consult with experts before deciding which of the services that can fulfill your business requirement. For more information, please contact Telkom DWS representatives.