phpMick's avatar
Level 15

Sending Bulk (30,000) SMS Messages

Hey,

Just wondering if anyone has done this and how they did it?

Obviously need a queue but should there be a job for each SMS or should one job send several?

Cheers,

Mick

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5 replies
aurawindsurfing's avatar

Hey @phpmick

You have 2 routes you can go, both assume you are ok with GDPR if you are based in EU and all those people consented to receiving them.

  1. Use API from one of the providers such as Twilio, Vonage (previously Nexmo) obviously the issue with it is that you will end up paying lots of money for it.

  2. You can create your own gateway with laravel using communications channels https://laravel-notification-channels.com/about/ the one I use from this list is on the depreciated list: https://laravel-notification-channels.com/gammu/#contents

Now when you dig deeper you will realise Gammu allows you to create own server and connect physical usb SIM dongles to it.

The beauty of this solution (dongles require bit of hacking to trick the network to see it as a phone and not as a modem) is that you are not limited by amount of text you can send. All that limits you is fair usage policy depending on your operators. In my case it is 20.000 per number.

Obviously this solution does not work if your business is present in multiple countries since it would require multiple servers set up in each of the countries.

Hope it helps!

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phpMick's avatar
Level 15

Thanks. Yes it's all legitimate! Probably using Vonage.

The question was really about how to structure the jobs, queue and API calls.

Cheers,

Mick

aurawindsurfing's avatar

@phpmick sure no probs. Be aware that API based services could get expensive very quickly.

Your example in Ireland for Vonage would cost 0.0585 * 30000 = 1755e per one round!

phpMick's avatar
Level 15

Went for queueable notifications, one for each SMS.

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