March 18, 2011 by mguhlin

Group SMS Txt via Email Distribution List

Image Source: http://www.avon-group.com/images/bulk\_sms.jpg?909

Someone asked recently how they could send a text message (SMS) to a group (or class of students) all at once?

For a bit, I tried finding a free service but gave up the search. Just as I was about to throw in the towel, I ran across a MakeUseOf.com article. It suggests setting up a distribution list, or group of contacts, in your email consisting of people’s mobile phone numbers. Of course, you’ll have to know who their phone carrier is, but that’s not hard to find out…just ask them. Once you have that information (phone number and carrier), it is pretty easy to setup a group in Gmail, for example, and then send emails to the group.

Most of mobile carriers offer free Email To SMS gateways which can be used to forward simple text emails to a mobile phones. And the good news, majority of those gateways are free and available to the general public.
You just need to know the number and the carrier of the recipient to start emailing them to mobile phone. Below we put together a table listing free email to SMS gateways for different carriers. You can use as quick reference both for US and international mobile numbers.

For fun, I set it up for my family and it worked flawlessly. Neat idea and thanks to MakeUseOf.com for sharing the following table for United States and International carriers:

Free Email To SMS Gateways (Major US Carriers)

Carrier

Email to SMS Gateway

Alltel

[10-digit phone number]@message.alltel.com
Example: 1234567890@message.alltel.com

AT&T (formerly Cingular)

[10-digit phone number]@txt.att.net
[10-digit phone number]@mms.att.net (MMS)
[10-digit phone number]@cingularme.com
Example: 1234567890@txt.att.net

Boost Mobile

[10-digit phone number]@myboostmobile.com
Example: 1234567890@myboostmobile.com

Nextel (now Sprint Nextel)

[10-digit telephone number]@messaging.nextel.com
Example: 1234567890@messaging.nextel.com

Sprint PCS (now Sprint Nextel)

[10-digit phone number]@messaging.sprintpcs.com
[10-digit phone number]@pm.sprint.com (MMS)
Example: 1234567890@messaging.sprintpcs.com

T-Mobile

[10-digit phone number]@tmomail.net
Example: 1234567890@tmomail.net

US Cellular

[10-digit phone number]email.uscc.net (SMS)
[10-digit phone number]@mms.uscc.net (MMS)
Example: 1234567890@email.uscc.net

Verizon

[10-digit phone number]@vtext.com
[10-digit phone number]@vzwpix.com (MMS)
Example: 1234567890@vtext.com

Virgin Mobile USA

[10-digit phone number]@vmobl.com
Example: 1234567890@vmobl.com

Free Email To SMS Gateways (International + Smaller US)

These are all I could find from Wikipedia and other sources. If you’re aware of any other ones please share them in comments and I’ll add them to the list.

Carrier

Email to SMS Gateway

7-11 Speakout (USA GSM)

_number_@cingularme.com

Airtel (Karnataka, India)

_number_@airtelkk.com

Airtel Wireless (Montana, USA)

_number_@sms.airtelmontana.com

Alaska Communications Systems

_number_@msg.acsalaska.com

Aql

_number_@text.aql.com