SMS instructions

TelephoneMessagePad is a hosted phone message service that allows you to take a single message and send it as an email and as a text message (SMS). You do not need to have an SMS account or even know how to send text messages. Log into the service and under the "Forms" menu, select and fill out the form called "sms_form".

Each wireless carrier has an email to SMS gateway. An email sent to the gateway address is converted to a text message. The general form of the email address is the mobile telephone number of the subscriber (numbers only), the "@", and the domain name of the gateway.

TelephoneMessagePad chooses the appropriate formatting for email and SMS destinations: HTML (default) for email and text for SMS. SMS has a 160 character limit and TelephoneMessagePad packs the message to fit. The fields included and excluded are described on the entry form.

SMS Gateways

Because each wireless operator has a different gateway domain, it is necessary to know who the wireless operator is. Here is a list of gateway domains common to USA.

Wireless Carrier   SMS email address format AT&T number@txt.att.net Verizon number@vzwpix.com or @vtext.com T-Mobile number@tmomail.net Sprint number@messaging.sprintpcs.com Alltel number@message.alltel.com

There is also a comprehensive gateway list of over 100 gateways if you do not find the wireless operator here.

If you do not know the carrier the fonefinder site can guess the carrier provided you know the mobile phone number. Fonefinder works by using a database of phone number blocks assigned to each carrier. Because individual phone numbers are portable, the results are not accurate for phone numbers which have changed from the initial carrier but Fonefinder is still helpful in many cases.