Comments on: Hidden costs of conference twittering on T-Mobile and 3

By: Ad

Ad — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 15:00:53 +0000

hey folks – yes -always be careful what number you text. It’s worth sending a few and then checking your bill online to make sure you’re not being stung.

the aql guys have a whole load of numbers that are cheap to text from t-mobile (in fact if you have a bundle, they are usually included).

you can get a free aql number that allows you to text-to-twitter from this page https://www.aql.com/sms/twitter/

A good way to check if a number is an isle of man number is to use a network lookup – again, the aql one is free (https://www.aql.com/telecoms/network-lookup/) but lots of operators have one too.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 08:56:52 +0000

Thanks – I already use a piece of software called Jeyo mobile companion which, with my (PocketPC) phone connected via USB, shows my SMS inbox from which I could copy and paste – I guess. But I’m not sure how this set up would cope with maybe hundreds of messages coming in over a short period of time (i.e. would a regular operator’s network work this fast?)

By: Tim

Tim — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 20:34:28 +0000

There are commercial providers who will offer SMS->Internet gateways – either via SMS->e-mail that you could then display, or SMS->some sort of web API you could interface with.

However, when I last looked (probably over 12 months ago) there was a fairly big up front cost (>Â£500) which was an issue for the voluntary sector groups I’ve been working with…

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 18:38:14 +0000

Is there any way to allow conference delegates to text to a number – without registering – and have those texts received via the internet (or at least on a PC) so that they can be displayed as you did with Twitter. It’s the registration process which is cumbersome to foist onto an audience of hundreds (as well as the costs you have highlighted)

By: Tim

Tim — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 10:47:59 +0000

Hey Kevin

That’s not a bad idea for two or three day events. I’ll look into it.

With the one day conference set-up where I’m really keen to use Twitter for feedback etc – we’ve usually only got 5 minutes to get people set up using it – hence encouraging sign-up and use via SMS…

So it’s really getting that sign up process to work – when you’re working with an audience of 50 – 100 people, some of whom are only just about comfortable using SMS, let along mobile interenet – that is providing me with a bit of a challenge…

By: Kevin

Kevin — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 05:30:24 +0000

give tiny twitter a shot… it’s a mobile client that will route around the sms charges. just point your mobile’s browser at http://m.ttwt.at and you’ll be setup in seconds.