A quick guide to upping SMS profit

Are you neglecting SMS? Probably. Are you leaving money on the table? Almost certainly.

SMS may be 30 years old, but it still has a lot to offer – for mobile network operators (MNOs), businesses, and consumers. That’s because it’s one of the most reliable ways to reach people. Many companies use SMS daily for delivery notifications, appointment info, one-time passwords, and bank statements.

But these companies are in the minority. Of the 300 million enterprises worldwide, only 2% use A2P SMS. If MNOs gave SMS the attention it deserves, that percentage could grow to between 5% and 10%, making A2P SMS a massive growth engine for the telecoms industry.

But first, MNOs need to iron out the many wrinkles in the end-user experience. Where to start? Our new guide to SMS transformation, of course! It explains why and how MNOs need to nurture person-to-person (P2P) traffic and build out the A2P business. Today, spam, fraud, phishing, and malware are too common.

Our new guide exposes the root of the problem – the complex SMS value chain. With multiple hubs and aggregators handling SMS traffic, MNOs find it hard to confirm if messages are traveling in the correct channels or even if they’ve been paid accurately. Today, 30% of P2P traffic is actually A2P content. In other words, these A2P messages are traveling via grey routes to bypass operator termination fees.

At the same time, MNOs end up paying termination charges for spam SMS that shouldn’t be delivered. Even in networks with anti-spam solutions, more than 20% of P2P messages are illegitimate and should be blocked. Yet legitimate A2P messages sometimes get blocked, so they’re not monetized.

As we said, it’s complicated.

Our new guide explains how to clean up this mess and, to be honest, most MNOs will need help. Juggling contracts and connections with aggregators and operators worldwide takes a lot of time and effort – it can be exhausting. MNOs should consider hiring a one-stop specialist to take the strain.

The brief? Manage the complex SMS value chain, maximize A2P monetization, and handle legitimate P2P traffic efficiently. But more than that, bring fraud management expertise and fight the fraudsters exploiting SMS.

At Sinch, we work with world-leading MNOs and brands to manage their A2P SMS under one roof. They benefit from our experience, expertise, and vast economies of scale and scope.

Check out SmarTone in Hong Kong and Mobicom in Mongolia to see how they’re enjoying a massive boost in A2P SMS revenue. EE/BT (the leading telco in the UK) is also reaping the benefits of working with Sinch, thanks to our global SMS Hub exchanging messages with 1,100 operators serving 7.4 billion subscribers worldwide.

It’s time to stop leaving money on the table. Find out more about transforming your SMS business into a massive growth engine – dive into our new guide!