IBM Cloud SMS service

Create a subscription with IBM SMS service as destination

1. From the Event Notifications dashboard, click Subscriptions in the navigation menu.

2. Click Create + to display Create a Subscription side panel.

3. Complete the following subscription details:

   • Name: name of the subscription.
   • Description: add an optional description for this subscription

4. Select a Topic from the list.

5. Select IBM Cloud SMS service as Destination from the list.

6. The Recipients section displays three tabs:

   • Invited - displays the list of phone numbers added to the subscription. Enter the phone numbers that need to receive SMS notifications and need to be part of the subscription.
   • Active - displays the list of phone numbers added to the subscription and confirmed by the user to receive SMS notifications.
   • Unsubscribed - displays the list of phone numbers added to the subscription and refused by the user not to receive SMS notifications.

   Add the user's phone numbers with a + and country code, who needs to receive SMS messages as part of this subscription, with comma (,) as separator between the numbers.

7. Click Create. The recipient automatically receives initial message that they have been invited to subscribe to the topic. This is the opt-in message.

The Opt-in message contains:

• invitee name or account
• name of the subscription
• name of the topic
• a link that will take you to a web page. The web page contains information that the recipient is subscribed to receive SMS notifications to a topic and a Confirm button. When the recipient click the Confirm button, then the recipient's number is moved from Invited tab to Active tab. A confirmation message also displaying that the recipient has accepted to receive SMS notifications. The confirmation message also contains a link to Unsubscribe, which on clicking moves to recipient's number to the Unsubscribed tab.
• an expiration time for the opt-in message.

Event Notifications are routed only to opted-in recipients. To stop receiving the notifications, recipient can click the Unsubscribe link in the message. Once unsubscribed, the recipients will not receive any notifications on the topic they have unsubscribed. To restart the subscription, the recipient need to contact IBM Event Notifications service administrator to add the number back to subscription.

In some cases, the carrier service allows keywords like START and STOP for receiving notifications and to stop notifications.

When a recipient doesn't wants to receive any SMS notification, they can opt out by sending a response STOP, which immediately disables sending notifications to the recipient. However, the phone number is moved to Unsubscribed tab only on the next attempt to send an SMS to the same number.

To add a recipient number back to active list, take the following steps:

1. Recipient needs to send START message back to the number from which SMS was received.
2. After sending START message, the recipient can contact their IBM Event Notifications service administrator to add the number back to subscription.

By adding phone numbers, you represent on behalf of yourself and your company that you have properly informed the individuals, to whom the added phone numbers pertain, of their addition to this recipient list and purpose thereof, and have the required consents to do so.

Total SMS Units

The total number of SMS units consumed for the notification is calculated as follows:

Total SMS units = (Number of Segments) x (Number of phone numbers) x (SMS Unit for the country)

In this example, with five subscribed phone numbers - two in the United States, two in Mexico, and one in France - the total number of SMS units would be:

SMS units for United States is: 3 x 2 x 0.61 = 3.66
SMS units for Mexico is: 3 x 2 x 1.93 = 11.58
SMS units for France is: 3 x 1 x 2.48 = 7.44

Total SMS units = 22.68

Total SMS Price

The total cost of SMS messages sent is calculated as follows:

Total SMS price = (Number of Segments) x (Number of phone numbers) x (Price In USD for the country)

In this example, the total cost of SMS messages sent would be:

SMS price for United States is: 3 x 2 x 0.0098515 = 0.059109 USD
SMS price for Mexico is: 3 x 2 x 0.0311695 = 0.187017 USD
SMS price for France is: 3 x 1 x 0.040052 = 0.120156 USD

Total SMS price = 0.366282 USD

Alternative Calculation

Alternatively, the total cost of SMS messages sent can be calculated using:

Total SMS Price = Total SMS units x 0.01615 ($0.01615 USD/Outbound Digital Message SMS Unit)

Total SMS price = 22.68 x 0.01615 = 0.366282 USD

Charging for Successfully Sent Messages

Regardless of whether the message was successfully delivered to the local device, you are charged for messages that are successfully sent by the IBM Cloud SMS service to the local SMS provider. Therefore, it is essential to verify your phone number list carefully to prevent unnecessary charges

For personalized numbers or if you're looking for higher volume and price negotiations, you can find more details here.

You can monitor your SMS usage by setting up a monitoring dashboard through the Actions menu in the Event Notifications dashboard. See Monitor Event Notifications service metrics with IBM Cloud Monitoring for details.