SMS messages are usually sent to the recipient device immediately, but if the number has been deactivated, the device is turned off, or the SMS box is full etc, then delivery time and results are affected. Under the validity period of 1 - 23 hours, if the transmission fails for the above reasons, the supplier's SMSC will resend these messages. After the validity period, this message that failed to be transmitted will be marked as "EXPIRED" and will not be sent again anymore. Each message has a unique message ID for identification, this ID can be used to track its delivery status, the failed reason for the transmission, and charged amount.
Yes. For Hong Kong and foreign SMS, an English message is 160 characters long; Unicode (for example: Traditional Chinese or Simplified Chinese) has a length of 70 characters, including text, punctuation, spaces and line break. This is the length of one single SMS, where one SMS amount is deducted. Since the system supports chain SMS function up to 3 messages, so three SMS amount will be deducted on this case, that means English and Unicode are 459 and 201 characters respectively. For China SMS, its English and Unicode characters length are the same with a maximum length of 459 characters equal to 8 messages. Details are as follows:
| Hong Kong and Foreign | ||
|---|---|---|
| Message number | Unicode | English |
| 1 | 70 | 160 |
| 2 | 134 | 306 |
| 3 | 201 | 459 |
| 4 | -- | -- |
| 5 | -- | -- |
| 6 | -- | -- |
| 7 | -- | -- |
| 8 | -- | -- |
| China (Exclusive signature prefix) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Message number | Unicode | English |
| 1 | 62 | 62 |
| 2 | 120 | 120 |
| 3 | 180 | 180 |
| 4 | 240 | 240 |
| 5 | 300 | 300 |
| 6 | 360 | 360 |
| 7 | 420 | 420 |
| 8 | 459 | 459 |
No. Customers need to use their own phone numbers for sending messages.
Yes. We support charity business. All charitable organizations can obtain an extra amount top up for HK $200 for the first purchase and an extra 10% amount top up for every purchase. Organization has to provide certificate issued by the Hong Kong Inland Revenue Department that it is tax exempted.
No. The entire process of sending messages is handled by customer, including logging in to the website, uploading phone numbers, entering SMS content, and pressing buttons. The advantage of this is that our staff can avoid contact with customers' valuable information, and also reduce unnecessary disclosure of data through email transmission in order to protect the privacy of customers.
We value customer privacy and concern about the protection of data transmission. These are the technical safety and code of practice as below:
Technical safety
Code of practice
Yes. Our system supports Unicode including Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean, etc.
Within the WebSMS, you can upload Excel file with one mobile phone number per line. Each file is limited to a maximum size of 4 MB, which contains approximately 50,000 numbers.
Yes, you can use your registered mobile phone number to receive any reply, just you set the SenderID to this number. In addition, you may also use our 2-Way SMS service to do it.
Yes, you may send SMS to multiple countries, including Hong Kong, China and Macau etc. For details, please refer to file Network Coverage
The SMS is uploaded by the user to the server of the company and then to the telecommunication operators. There are many steps. The details are as follows:
| Code | Status | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | UPLOAD FAILED | Message is failed to be transmitted to our SMS system. |
| 2 | UPLOAD SUCCESS | Message is succeeded to be transmitted to our SMS system. |
| 3 | SCH-EDULING | Message has been saved in our system, and it will be sent on scheduled date time. |
| 4 | PRO-CESSING | Message is being sent to telecommunication operator. |
| 19 | RETRY | Message has been sent to telecommunication operator, but it does not terminated to handset, maybe the handset is off, line forward or message box is full. However, the message will be resent again within 1 - 23 hours. |
| 20 | EXPIRED | The validity period of 23 hours have been passed, the message is still not terminated to handset, so it is canceled. |
| 21 | UNDEL-IVERABLE | The message is undeliverable to handset, maybe the number is unsubscribed or no service, or even recipient requires telecommunication operator to block such disturbing promotional message. |
| 22 | DEL-IVERED | Message has been terminated to handset. |
Here the definition of "failure" is that the SMS has been sent out from system to telecommunication operator, but it cannot reach the mobile phone, such as the number has been deactivated, the device is off and line forward etc. In this case, this message will be charged and failure reason is provided. On the other hand, if the SMS has not been sent from system, then it will not be charged, for example the incorrect format of mobile number, insufficient account balance or the exceeding of SMS charge against the account setting of single SMS charge upper limit and so on.
SMS validity period means the maximum period kept in the delivery queue for next resending after the message has been transmitted to telecommunication operator but the message is failed to handset on first delivery. The longer the validity period, the higher the chance that the client will receive the SMS. On the other hand, if the validity period is short, it can reduce the probability of telecommunication operators to send duplicated messages to roaming clients, and delivery result will be known earlier. The recommended time is 120 minutes, it is applicable to Hong Kong and foreign messages only. In addition, the validity period will vary depending on telecommunication operators policy.
No. Our system will only charge the message on first time delivery.
This depends on whether the telecommunication operator supports the SMS gateway for both networks. Usually only one network is supported within both numbers. If you send a message failed on a certain number, you can try to send the message to another mobile number of this card.
Because China strictly manages and filters SMS delivery, so telecommunication operators must ensure the source of each SMS sent out. Therefore, we cannot customize to set SenderID and it is replaced by a traceable gateway number instead. As for the signature prefix, this is the requirement of telecommunication operators, so that recipients can know the source of the SMS.
Yes. Staring from July 22, 2015, we support the setting of signature prefix service for China SMS. Details are as below:
Customers who use signature prefix
Customers who do not use signature prefix
Characteristics of China SMS
This is because China SMS transmission volume is very large, and the daily transmission volume is as high as 2.6 billion. The true delivery report service is an additional network burden for the telecommunication operators, so it is not supported.
The reason why the SMS is filtered is mainly that the content is illegal and the identity of the recipient is sensitive. For the content of SMS, telecommunication operators have developed China SMS Illegal Keyword Library. Before sending a message, please make sure that the content does not contain any illegal keyword. In special occasions, such as the Olympic Games or the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, more illegal keywords will be added suddenly but the library is still not updated. Customers can only find out through the SMS error code and contact our customer service to know such additional illegal keywords. As for the identity of the recipient, for example, the telephone number is belonged to a government official or the recipient has complained about the spawning of SMS before, and even replied to reject the receive of such messages, then telecommunication operators will also filter these numbers by default. In the same way, please contact our customer service, let us explain with telecommunication operators on these numbers, and then put them on white list to solve it.
In the past, the route for customers to send Hong Kong SMS was "Hong Kong Business Route". This route is slightly more expensive, but it is stable and supports a variety of SMS features, making it ideal for important notifications purpose. As for the "Hong Kong Economic Route", the price can be more favorable due to the elimination of SenderID registration and extra network traffic spent on delivery report acknowledgment, so it is suitable for mass promotion.
Yes, our system supports sub account function. Both account balances can be trasferred to each other, but their account profiles, addressbook and delivery results are not disclosed to other parties. The first account you setup before is called primary account, and the newly opened accounts are called sub accounts. The new sub accounts must also be registered through New user sign up , then send an email to "cs@meteorsis.com", indicating the login names of primary account and its sub account. Our customer service will process the application and it will take 1 working day to process without additional charge. Here you are reminded that the transfer request of account balance has to be operated by customer service manually by email or telephone, and the website does not support customers to operate by themselves and there is no relevant transferred record kept in the system.
The Office of the Communications Authority (OFCA) announced the "Short Message Service (SMS) Sender Registration Scheme" on Dec 20, 2024, and it will first be implemented in the telecommunications, banking and government departments sectors with a view to helping members of the public verify the identities of SMS senders and beware of call and SMS scams. Under the Scheme, all Registered Senders will use "Registered SMS Sender IDs" with the prefix "#" to send SMS messages to local subscribers of mobile services. However, this scheme is not a mandatory policy towards companies other than the above sectors. So, you may still to send out SMS using SenderID without prefix "#". If you confirm to apply this scheme, steps are as below:
For the updated "Short Message Service (SMS) Sender Registration Scheme", please visit the web page Registration of SMS Sender IDs.
For security reasons, the system automatically deletes the delivery records 2 months ago, so you cannot retrieve any record prior than 2 months before. We recommend that customers download relevant records on a regular basis.
When you try to retrieve the password, system will send it by SMS and deduct the amount at your account. However, your account does not have enough balance, so this error message is shown. Please contact our customer service to solve this issue.
A chain SMS is a combination of multiple single SMS messages. In theory, the number of SMS messages can be more. However, as long as one of the single SMS messages is delayed to handset or lost, the entire chain SMS will be failed. According to our experience, the chain SMS of 3 messages can maintain the highest deliverable rate.
You may set at most 5 SenderID for each account. When sending a message, you have to choose one of them as the SenderID. However, the characters of SenderID must be set by our staff, you cannot set them by yourself. Moreover, please note that this SenderID must match the name of your company's business registration certificate.
Within the WebSMS, you can delete SMS messages scheduled for 1 hour afterwards but it does not support modification. For scheduled SMS messages that need to be deleted within 1 hour, you can contact our customer service for processing, but there is no guarantee that they will be deleted, as it depends on the support by the telecommunication operators.
It takes 5 working days.
No.
No.
No.
No.
No.
The scheduling time can be as long as 5 years.
Yes, it will be sent out immediately.
Before sending messages, if the amount required exceeds the remained account balance, system will reject your submission. During the delivery, if your account balance is negative, the remained messages will not be sent, where their delivery status are "UNDELIVERABLE" with error code "Insufficient Balance", and they will not be charged. Even you have top up your account again, these unsent messages still will not be processed any more.
For WebSMS, you may select "Delivery Result" > "Period Search" > "Query" to find out the relevant delivery results first. In the column "Action", click "Resend", check the box of "Insufficient Balance", and click "OK" button. The system will automatically extract these numbers which fulfill the above condition and relevant settings on this batch as a new delivery. Next, customer sends this new batch to continue.
You need to set your SenderID using your mobile number plus the country code, for example 85299887766 where "852" stands for Hong Kong. In addition, this SenderID contains numeric characters only without characters of "+" or "–".
Yes, this service is free of charge.
Yes you can. Client's verbal or written commitment to receive your promotional messages has overrided the limits of OFCA do-not-call registers filtering service.
The length of the SMS SenderID is 11 alphanumeric characters or 11 numeric valid mobile phone number, and Chinese characters as well as punctuations are not accepted. For the allowed characters of alphanumeric SenderID, you can include "A-Z", "a-z" and "0-9".
The total number of message and total charge of message mean the total number of messages in a batch delivery and total amount required to send this batch respectively. As the message charge will vary based on the length and destination of the SMS content, so the total charge is usually more than the total number.
The system sends a message at a speed of about 1 second for processing 10–20 SMS to reach the SMSC of telecommunication operators. It should be noted that the exact time for receipient to receive a message depends on the networking quality of telecommunication operators and traffic congestion at the time. Generally, it takes about 10 minutes to process 10,000 messages.
If the total phone numbers in a batch is over 100, WCF SOAP is recommended. SOAP is transmitted in XML, and one file can include a lot of phone numbers without limitation. On ther other hand, if you send messages using HTTP API, each URL is limited to a maximum of 20 phones numbers, which requires multiple devliery.
Firstly, the SMTP API is a connectionless transmission, it means our system cannot response to your request immediately. According to the descriptions of SMTP API manual, our system will reply to your email and inform you whether your request has been successfully handled. If the information is correct, the email content will include the message ID called SMSD ID. Since the replied email may be lost or delayed, your system thinks that the initial email delivery is failed and then resend the request again, so that the repeated SMS will happen. Here you are suggested to use WCF SOAP or HTTP API in order to alleviate this situation and enhance the security of data transmission.
The status of a SMS includes "RETRY", "EXPIRED", "UNDELIVERABLE" and "DELIVERED" etc, which indicates whether the message has arrived at the mobile device or not. If it still hasn't arrived, then whether telecommunication operators will continue to resend or not. As for the error code, it is the reason to explain for such status, for example, the mobile phone is turned off, the networking signal is bad, line forward, phone number is unsubscribed or deactivated etc.
Firstly, you have to confirm that there is no any application in mobile phone which blocks the receiving of SMS abnormally and your phone is not line forward. Then, you are suggested to delete the old messages and large size of video files in phone, and then switch it on and test again. If the problem still persists, you may insert your sim card to another phone for testing. If messages are still undeliverable, please report this issue as soon as possible via email to cs@meteorsis.com or hotline 852-27793760. After receiving the report, we will contact with telecommunication operators for investiagtion.
Firstly, you have to confirm that there is no any application in mobile phone which blocks the receiving of SMS abnormally. Then, you are suggested to delete the old messages and large size of video files in phone, and then switch it on and test again. If messages are still undeliverable, please report this issue as soon as possible via email to cs@meteorsis.com or hotline 852-27793760. After receiving the report, we will conduct a series of testings on this phone number by sending multiple messages using different SenderID, content and routes at different time intervals. Meanwhile, please reply our email from customer service to confirm which test result is failed or not. After collecting the latest information, we can escalate the case to telecommunication operators to find out the exact reason and know how to solve it.
Please report this issue as soon as possible via email to cs@meteorsis.com or hotline 852-27793760.
Please report this issue as soon as possible via email to cs@meteorsis.com or hotline 852-27793760.
From view of recipient, a chain SMS appears to be one message, but technically it is a series of individual short messages combined. These individual short messages must all arrive at the mobile phone within a certain period of time, and then reorganized into a chain message based on the message header. The above case will happen if one of the individual SMS messages fails to be received. To solve this problem, recipients are suggested to delete the old messages and large size of video files in mobile phone first and then switch it on to test again. If the problem still persists, you may try reducing the total message number in a chain SMS.
Please check whether firewall of your system allows our IP to access. The IP of our system are 203.186.221.102, 223.197.184.131 and 223.197.184.175.
This situation usually occurs when client is in roaming status, the telecommunication operators in the two countries are not well connected where the message status status is not updated at the two sides, so the same SMS is repeated to be sent out. There are two solutions to solve it, they are immediacy and parameter setting before delivery.
Immediacy
Client shuts down the device first, then waits for more than 30 seconds to turn it on again. Then the device registers with local telecommunication operator and clear the old data in device. In fact, this method is only applicable to some telecommunication operators.
Account setting before delivery
Our system supports the setting of "Validity Period" for SMS. This period refers to the time when a message is sent out but failed in temporary, and then it is stored in the SMSC of telecommunication operator. During this period, the SMS will be automatically resent until the success delivery or this period time has passed. The shorter the period, the less chance that a telecommunication operator will send repeated messages to a roaming client. To set this period time in WebSMS, the steps are "User Profile" > "Account Setting" > "SMS Validity Period", and change to "10". (* means 10 minutes, the less the better)
In the GSM alphabet system table, the line break includes "CR" and "LF" for a total of 2 characters. In other websites, such as those running on the Linux operating system, it has only "CR" character. You can refer to this Website to understand how line break is stored on Windows, Linux, and MacOS.
If the API cannot connect to our website, there are usually only two reasons, they are firewall blocking or domain name resolution error.
Firewall blocking
Firstly, your website is allowed to access our IP, including 203.186.221.102, 223.197.184.131 and 223.197.184.175. In addition, if you can connect our website before, but suddenly there have been problems in the last few days, and you have not changed the settings of your system at the same time, then it should be due to excessive connections to our IP in a short period of time, so our networking router block them at that moment. Please contact our customer service to unblock your IP.
Domain name resolution error
Please confirm that the domain name of API is www.meteorsis.com, and the IP address resolved by the name server are 203.186.221.102, 223.197.184.131 and 223.197.184.175. Also, please check if the hosts file is filled with the wrong information.
For more information, please visit the web page Charge Detail‧Price List SMS‧Volume Charge
The account top up amount is at least HK $300.
For more information, please visit the web page Charge Detail‧Payment Method
No. Our payment model is prepaid.