Text your heart out without the heart attack

Stop wasting money and making mobile carriers richer in the process with over priced international text messaging. Thanks to a service called smsBug, send SMS to international friends, family and colleges without the high cost. smsBug is available as a small unobtrusive java application or through a WAP site that allows text messages to be sent to people on over 400 networks around the world for a fraction of the cost. smsBug works on credits with most destinations using only 1 credit with a few location using 2 credits per messages sent.

Credits are mere $0.03EU, roughly $0.04US. Four cents is less than 2/3 the cost of the major US carriers with rates only expected to increase for a la carte users. A small data plan is need to use either the application or WAP portal. Don’t get too excited to dump that text messaging package just yet.

Once downloaded the small application (29.5 KB) and go through the setup process which only takes a few minutes, sending SMS will use some, albeit very little data.The application is not loaded down with graphics, perfect for even the smallest of data plans. Additionally because only text is being sent and received the process is relatively quick.

While smsBug does use data to send messages the real beauty of the program is all messages sent appear to the recipient as any other message from the sender. Not only does this mean there is no need to load any special programs to recieve your messages, neither do recipeints when replying. Receiptients may either reply as normal or through their own smsBug account. There is no site to check, nothing additional is needed to read or reply to any message to anyone.

smsBug does have an online address book and with the java application numbers can be accessed from the device's addressbook (at least with S60 phones, other phones may work similarly but have not tested it on non-S60 devices). The application is a quicker method to access the service and is not required.

Yet another handy feature of the service is the ability to give credits. What better way to ensure a friend or family member replies than to pay for the cost of sending a message back. Credits can be added to smsBug for as little as $3.00EU for 100 credits (100 messages in most cases). New users recieve 5 free credits to try before buying. If sending more than the occasional international text I highly encourage giving this service a shot.

In the end smsBug is a great little no frills service that could save a small fortune in international text messaging possibly in domestic usage as well.

NOTE: Customer Service and Support is not very timely but eventually they have taken care of any issues. I have heard some complaints but have not experienced any serious issues other than taking forever to respond to email.

Comments

[ladiko]

thank you for the information. in germany the normal price for a national sms is 9 to 20 eurocent and 20 to 30 (or more?) cent to international contacts. so its really cheap.

my price is:
10ct national, 20ct international, 24ct/mb data transfer payed per 10kb part

how much smsBug sms fit into 1 mb? :-)

[Phoena]

Thanks for this informative posting!!

[Abdullah]

Glad you found it. Another one that i have been using that is little cheap is www.mobiwireless.com where 1 credit costs 0.028EU.
They too have all things exactly like smsbug, but their delivery reports are accurate and faster than smsbug which does not show you delivery report and your sms sent history until 24-48hr after you sent it.

[NYCMoBlog]

try www.chikka.com its all free local and international sms... but only web base