Overview

The Skyetel Network can enable your phone numbers for SMS and MMS. This feature allows you to send and receive a SMS or MMS from/to mobile phone networks (like Verizon or T-Mobile). 

Getting Started

You can toggle the SMS & MMS enablement from within our portal in the phone number options menu:

You will be presented with three options:

E-mail

This method allows an incoming SMS or MMS to be converted to an email and sent to a specified address in our portal.

Phone Number

This method allows an incoming SMS or MMS to be forwarded to another phone number (generally a mobile phone)

Callback URL (POST or GET)

This method allows you to receive the SMS or MMS via a call from our API. Messages are sent to your provided callback URL with a JSON body that matches the fields required for sending an SMS or MMS shown below. You can expect at least to, from, and text fields.

Limitations to SMS & MMS

While our network is able to enable and process SMS and MMS for almost all of our numbers, there are a few limitations to be aware of:

Toll Free Numbers 

Our network is not currently configured to SMS enable Toll Free numbers. 

Numbers must be route-able and voice enabled 

If your phone number is never assigned to an endpoint group or never receives phone calls, the SMS enablement may be auto-disabled to prevent spam. This does not happen on ported-in numbers, only numbers purchased from our network inventory and only when they are not routed after purchase.

SMS Enablement Requires the "State" of a number to be Healthy

Our network does the legwork to prepare a number for SMS enablement as soon as it it's phone number state becomes "Healthy". This insures that we do not accidentally prepare a number for SMS prior to it actually being on our network. 

SMS Enablement can take up to 24 hours

While most SMS enablements will be instant, there are edge cases where some phone numbers take longer than others to enable. 

SMS & MMS may only be sent via our API

Our network requires you to use our API to send any SMS or MMS. 

Short Code SMS is unsupported

Our network is unable to receive short code sms messages

1 Outbound SMS/MMS per Second

All Skyetel numbers are limited to 1 SMS or MMS per second

Ineligible Numbers

While most numbers on our network support SMS and MMS, some numbers do not. Specifically, non-US numbers (including Canada - sorry guys) can not be enabled for SMS. There are also a very small percentage of US numbers that are ineligible.

Skyetel is incompatible with third-party SMS enablement services

When you port your number to Skyetel, our network automatically assigns your number to our SMS service (even if you don't have it enabled in our portal). We do this to make our SMS enablement speedy and as part of underlying agreements we have made with the PSTN.

Sending an SMS or MMS through Skyetel API

SMS is sent by generating a specially-crafted request to the Skyetel SMS API and using an SID and Secret you have created for this purpose.

Generating and obtaining an SID and Secret

Skyetel allows you to create your own SID and Secret and later remove it when it is no longer used. These can be generated by visiting your Skyetel portal 

Sending a basic SMS or MMS

Here is an example of performing that request using the curl command-line tool:

curl -X POST -v \
  -H "Content-type: application/json" \
  --user <SID>:<SECRET> \
  --data '{ "to": "15558001234", "text": "You are awesome" }' \
  https://sms.skyetel.com/v1/out?from=15558004321

Required header fields

Required fields in data

{
  "to": "15558001234",
  "text": "ARRR! THE SHIP BE SINKING!",
  "media": [ "https://media.giphy.com/media/3o6ZtihIv0pJqdp3H2/giphy.gif" ]
}

Required URL query fields

Troubleshooting 

Unauthorized Error

• Check that your SID and Secret are correct
• Check that the your 11-digit from phone number is accurate, in a GOOD lifecycle state, and SMS-enabled
• Check that you have a positive Skyetel balance

Message not Received

• Wait up to 3 minutes especially for MMS messages that include multiple attachments
• Check that your media attachments are not large than 1.5MB
• Make sure your media or attachment is a supported type
• Check that your recipient phone number is correct and able to receive messages
• Try a separate recipient phone number
• Open a Skyetel portal support ticket

Message Received without Media

• Make sure your recipient supports the media attachment that you are sending

Supported File Attachment Extensions

Postcards

Postcards is a UI for the Skyetel SMS & MMS application that we released as an open-source project. You can read all about that here:

https://bitbucket.org/skyetel/postcards-installer