The bulk SMS industry changed substantially over the last two years or so as sp@m became an issue with carriers and the industry defined itself by distinguishing between the features of a route and the price the client pays.

As a result, we now live with a situation where "you get what you pay for". In an earlier article, we discussed how a bulk SMS client should choose the route he wish to use. We looked at the different features and options that are available.

In this article, we will take a look at the difference of commercial bulk SMS routes vs guaranteed bulk SMS routes also known as premium bulk SMS

Commercial bulk SMS routes:

Commercial bulk SMS routes may include all features a guaranteed route offers but the delivery is not always guaranteed. Users therefore always have to test before they send a batch. Managed sends always include one message at the end of the batch sent for management to check whether the messages before theirs were delivered. Some of the very cheap bulk SMS routes might not offer delivery reports, have fixed numeric sender ID etc.

Guaranteed Bulk SMS routes:

Guaranteed bulk SMS routes on the other hand guarantee not only delivery, but also include all the features that clients wish for (delivery reports, dynamic sender ID, short code originator, binary support etc). That is the advantage. The only negative point is that guaranteed bulk SMS routes are charged at a premium price.

So, let's take a look at the price issue:

Let