The Now SMS & MMS Gateway requires a connection to an SMSC (Short Messaging Service Centre), or SMS service provider, to interface with SMS and MMS networks. An SMSC connection can consist of one or more of the following:
Android Phone – An active SIM card is required.
GSM Modem – A GSM modem connected to a serial port or USB port. An active SIM card is required.
SMPP (Short Message Peer to Peer Protocol) – A TCP/IP connection over the internet or a private network to a service that supports v3.3 or v3.4 of the SMPP protocol.
UCP/EMI (Universal Computer Protocol / External Machine Interface) – A TCP/IP connection over the internet or a private network to a service that supports v3.5 or higher of the UCP/EMI protocol. UCP/EMI is primarily implemented by CMG SMSCs.
CIMD2 (Computer Interface to Message Distribution, version 2) – A TCP/IP connection over the internet to a service that supports the CIMD2 protocol. CIMD2 is implemented by Nokia SMSCs.
HTTP (Hyper Text Transport Protocol, e.g., the standard protocol for the “web”) – A TCP/IP connection over the internet or private network to a service that accepts SMS messages via an HTTP “GET” based protocol.
This SMSC connection is required to utilise NowSMS. Without an SMSC connection, NowSMS is not able to send or receive messages (although very limited functionality is still available for specialised laboratory environments for phone testing).