AQL sms-enables 20 million UK geographic numbers
AQL has sms-enabled over 20 million UK geographic numbers and, as a result, can now provide inbound and outbound voice, sms and fax on the same number — enabling a converged wholesale offering. Smart.
FINALLY, with this service, you’ll be able to say ‘text/phone/fax me on 0207 655 0000′ or the like. The key point is that you can do this with localised numbers from different areas.
What’s pretty neat is that AQL can provide this functionality for existing telecoms providers — it’s basically a bolt-on, so there won’t be any interruption to existing subscriber voice services.
If you’d like to try this out, you can. Just text AQL on 01133 20 30 40. I just sent them a text to the demo number and got a quick reply. It’s strange — but cool — seeing a reply from a ‘landline’ number.
More information at www.aql.com.
‘Scuse me if I’m being a bit thick, but BT landlines have has SMS enabled for the last 4 years or so. One of my first jobs at Big Red was testing that landline SMS worked with mobiles.
I guess it’s cool if a company sends texts from a callable number - but it’s not exactly new.
Incidentally, one of the rumours around landline SMS was that the networks had noticed how many (uncharged) texts were being rejected because they were sent to a landline…
Posted by Terence Eden on April 15th, 2008 at 4:34 pm.Hi Terence,
BT landlines have been SMS enabled for years, but the SMS goes to a handset. aql are an SMS aggregator and are a telecommunications provider (ie “like” BT, but not BT).
The clever bit is that the messages can be grabbed and delivered to applications that can then do other things with the messages, such as deliver them into callcentre CRM solutions, or send auto-responders (like the example above…).
hope this helps explain - if you’d like a few free numbers to play with to see how it works, just contact us via http://try.aql.com
Posted by adam beaumont on April 15th, 2008 at 4:48 pm.Ewan, that’s not how you write a London number!
Posted by Anthony on April 15th, 2008 at 5:54 pm.Anthony’s last blog post..Artistic touch… screen: Tux Paint-ing