Netfors delivers billions of SMS a month
Developing solutions for delivering huge numbers of SMS has so far been the domain of big network vendors – until now. The Danish start-up Netfors is disrupting the market with innovative solutions that allow mobile operators and MVNOs to provide millions of SMS at very competitive prices. With 50 SMSCs spread out all over the world, they are now delivering billions of SMS a month.The market for SMS and other forms of messaging solutions is still alive and strong especially among MVNOs and in emerging markets, says Netfors CEO and founder, Anders Baekgaard.
“We’re seeing a great deal of interest from MNOs and MVNOs, as well as aggregators and service providers. But there’s no question that our business opportunity is to focus on smaller MVNOs and carriers who need flexibility and scalability. We’re always ready to adapt and customize our systems to meet the specific needs. This is a huge value-add in the industry, as vendors are usually not interested in offering customized solutions. And when they are, they are usually very expensive,” says Anders Baekgaard.
Netfors’ systems are developed in-house, which means that their solution is unique and a more flexible and scalable means of providing SMS service platforms to operators. And issues management is a top priority:
“Having our own protocol stacks and highly qualified technical resources we are able to adapt the products to specific requirements. During daily operations the customer has direct contact to a qualified technician, and in case of issues regarding our software, we make it our highest priority to solve the problem fast – which we do, ” says a confident Andes Baekgaard.
One of their major customers, Telfree in South Africa, had no doubts whatsoever, about choosing Netfors as their supplier, when they were on the lookout for a new SMSC supplier. Chief technology officer at Telfree, Ruan Malan explains:
“With Netfors, we’ve experienced a commitment and flexibility that we haven’t seen with any of the bigger vendors. Netfors’ response time is fast and reliable, and with their in-depth knowledge of SS7, SMPP and SMSCs, we felt very confident in choosing Netfors as our supplier – even though they are thousands of miles away.”
Telfree contacted Netfors in January 2012. They needed an SMSC with interfaces to the mobile networks via E1 and SIGTRAN, and to Internet based applications via SMPP. After a test period of 30 days, they started up with an operation license of 200 SMS TPS, and have since then expanded to 500 and 1000 SMS TPS. They are currently sending more than 300 million SMS per month via Netfors’ SMS centers.
“Our goal is to replicate the solution that we have set up for Telfree, and deploy it in the rest of the world. We truly believe that everyone, and especially companies operating in emerging markets, should have access to flexible solutions at competitive prices,” says Anders Baekgaard. And with their current 50 SMSCs located around the world, they seem ready for the task.