[asterisk-users] Text messaging and Asterisk

[John Todd]

>   Can somebody please give a pointer to a complete neophyte (like me) on
>text messaging, what product can I use to send and automatic text message to
>a cell phone from within the asterisk dialplan? (the part of the dialplan I
>have down, the part of the text message no)
>
>Thanks
>C. Savinovich

1) Email-to-SMS gateways are plentiful, and most carriers have them. 
Google will give more details, but WikiPedia has good data to start: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_gateway

2) Connect a GSM phone to your *NIX system.  There are several 
software packages out there to do this via serial port.  Command-line 
tools then can send SMS messages via the local phone.  Put a 
"System()" call in your dialplan, or (better) use an AGI.

3) Use a service provider that does SMS gatewaying.  Much more 
reliable than the first two methods.  One example firm I've used with 
very easy startup and several APIs including email: Clickatell.com. 
Others: http://www.160characters.org/pages.php?action=view&pid=7

JT

-- 
John Todd
jtodd at digium.com        +1-256-428-6083
Asterisk Open Source Community Director