SIPphone's GizmoSMS delivers free international SMS

Stephen Withers
Thursday, 15 March 2007 10:41

Your IT - Home IT

Not content with offering free phone calls to selected countries, SIPphone has added free text messaging (SMS) to its service lineup.

Available via GizmoSMS, the new offering allows single messages of up to 120 characters to be sent to mobile phones in over 50 countries. While there is no charge for sending via GizmoSMS, recipients may be charged for delivery by their carriers.

iTWire tested the service with messages to two different Australian networks, and neither was delivered within two hours even though GizmoSMS reported "Success: SMS Message sent!" on both occasions.

The conditions of service do not appear to impose any limitation on the number of times GizmoSMS can be used in any period, but do include the clause "We reserve the right to reduce the size of text messages to be able to incorporate advertising content in our discretion."

GizmoSMS uses a captcha to help protect against automated abuse, a commonly used technique that has been criticised in a working group note produced by the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C's) Web Accessibility Initiative because it makes life difficult for visually impaired people and those with dyslexia.

The countries covered by the service are Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Finland, France, Germany, Guatemala, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Ivory Coast, Japan, Latvia, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Reunion, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay and Venezuela.

SIPphone offers limited free calls to fixed (and in some cases mobile) phones in several countries via its GizmoCall service

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