How much are short codes in the U.S

How much are short codes in the U.S

Short codes are usually used by organizations to market their products/services via mobile phones. An example of a company that can help you get short codes is Textmarks. They have clients as big as Microsoft and E-bay and they also cater to small organizations and even individuals. However, before you waste time and money getting short codes for vanity purposes, you might think again and read more about short codes below:

• Short codes are classified into 2 types: dedicated and shared.

o   Dedicated short codes cater to individual customers and usually take time to be set up. Aside from timeframe, money is also a great deal because it can cost from $15,000 to $30,000 per year of their service.

o   Shared short codes have keywords and can be shared among a group of people. This cost relatively smaller than dedicated. Textmarks is an example of shared short codes.

• For US short codes, you have to select either vanity (hand-picked) or random. Vanity costs $1,000 a month (only for registration) while random is priced half.
• Obtaining short codes can be a difficult process in US.
• There are also general rules and restrictions sited by CTIA. You cannot obtain codes that promote politics, religion, pornography, gambling, drugs and anything alike.

These are just some reminders that you have to keep in mind before getting your very own short codes.

How much are short codes in the U.S

A “short code” or “short codes” or “short numbers” are short digit sequences, much shorter than telephone numbers used to address messages in MMS or Multimedia Messaging System and SMS or Short Message Service systems of mobile network operators. Additionally, they can be used in abbreviated dialing.

A CSC or common short code is a short telephone number normally consisting of five digits used to address SMS and MMS messages from a cellular telephone. Every short code is designed to be unique to every operator. They are used for additional wireless services like TV voting, polling, and ordering ringtones as well as making donations and queries to Google’s SMS search engine.

Short codes are normally billed at a higher rate than SMS or MMS messages. Though short codes have been popular for years in Europe, they only gained wide-spread adoption in the United States after using them as voting method in the massively popular TV show “American Idol”. Cross-carrier short codes were launched in the United States in 2003.