Internet

Text messaging is one of the popular ways to communicate these days. However, unlike most wireless carriers in the rest of the world, U.S. wireless companies tend to double-charge customers for texts: They charge both for sending texts and for delivering each text message. This can be annoying, especially for the vast majority of people who don’t have smartphones.

If you’re looking to save money on texting, or if you just think those double charges are silly, there are some ways to avoid them — at least the charge for sending a text message.

While plans that include unlimited texting are popular, many budget-conscious cell phone users have plans with text-message limits — and they face extra charges if they exceed those limits. Also, many phones (especially pre-paid ones) charge per message, and the cost for this can be steep. For instance, a T-Mobile prepaid plan charges “10 cents to send a text and 5 cents to receive in the U.S. and Canada; 35 cents to send and 5 cents to receive everywhere else.”

Not only can you send a text message via e-mail from your computer, but also from any e-mail-enabled phone. Most phones, even inexpensive feature phones, can send and receive e-mail messages. Also, wireless carriers designate an e-mail address for any e-mail enabled phone — so you don’t need to worry about linking your computer-based e-mail to your phone service if you don’t want to.

Below is the complete list of (currently known) Email to SMS Gateways. Using the list below simply replace the n in each entry with your own mobile number. Send an email to this address and a message will be sent automatically to your mobile device.

If you want access to the entire list in plain format see the networks directory [2]. Note that this list is part of the Quick SMS plugin and as such is licensed under the GPL. For convenience I have dual licensed it with the BSD License – feel free to use the list anywhere you like.