Introduction
On Dashboardly, in the Overview tab of an SMS campaign, the number of billed SMS messages is displayed.
How is the number of billed SMS messages calculated?
When an SMS campaign is sent, the messages are transmitted to the various mobile carriers.
A message sent to a mobile operator can be:
- acknowledged but not received: on Dashboardly, in the "Not Received" tab, these are expired, ported, pending, canceled, or operator-error SMS messages
- Confirmed and Received: On Dashboardly, in the "Deliverability" tab, these are the received SMS messages
- Unacknowledged and not received: On Dashboardly, in the "Deliverability" tab, these are the rejected SMS messages
A message is acknowledged when it is transmitted to the carrier and the carrier confirms receipt. The message is then the carrier’s responsibility. Acknowledgment is not a guarantee of delivery, but simply a step in the transmission chain.
A received message is one for which the carrier confirms to us that the message was successfully delivered to the mobile phone. A received message was previously acknowledged.
A message sent to an operator may not be acknowledged by the operator, for example, in the event of an error on the operator’s mobile network.
In the case of marketing campaigns, a subscriber may request to unsubscribe. In this case, a reply message confirming that the request has been received is automatically sent. This is a legal requirement imposed by mobile operators.
Billed SMS messages are the sum of:
- all SMS messages sent and acknowledged
- and all replies to unsubscribe requests
Conclusion
The number of SMS messages billed may be:
- less than the number of SMS messages sent: in cases where some sent SMS messages are rejected by mobile carriers
- greater than the number of SMS messages sent: if the messages sent are long SMS messages (2 SMS messages or more)