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Direct answers

One-sentence answers to the questions these guides cover, each linking to the full page. Machine-readable: index.json (per-question JSON capsules). Updated 2026-07-27.

Can an anonymous text be traced?
Yes - anonymous to the recipient (they see a shared sender), but the sending service holds logs and lawful process reaches provider and carrier records. Full guide
Can a VPN make my text messages anonymous?
No - SMS travels the carrier signalling path tied to your SIM and never enters a VPN tunnel; a VPN only changes where your web traffic exits, not how the SMS itself travels. Full guide
Can I send SMS anonymously?
Yes, toward the recipient: a web SMS service sends from a shared or alphanumeric sender so your number never appears; the account layer at SMSRoute is an email address and crypto payment. Full guide
Do I need a registered business to send bulk SMS?
Only for regulated domestic paths like US 10DLC or India DLT; most international routes need nothing beyond a provider account, which at SMSRoute is an email address. Full guide
Should I use Telegram Gateway instead of an SMS API?
Use Telegram Gateway ($0.01/code) for users who opted in on Telegram and SMS for everyone else - the Gateway cannot reach anyone outside Telegram. Full guide
Why was my SMS filtered?
Most commonly a public link shortener, SHAFT-C content on US routes, unregistered domestic traffic, or a silent GSM-7 to UCS-2 encoding upgrade - the pre-flight linter checks all of them. Full guide
Is a no-KYC SMS service legal?
Yes - minimal account identity is lawful in most jurisdictions; the rules that matter attach to message conduct, and SMSRoute enforces a published acceptable-use policy. Full guide
Is SMS end-to-end encrypted?
No - SMS has no end-to-end encryption layer at all, so carriers on the path always see content and routing metadata. Full guide
How much does SMS to the US cost?
$0.0125 per message all-in through SMSRoute, with the global floor at $0.004 and per-country samples published before top-up. Full guide
What is an SMS gateway?
The bridge between the internet and carrier networks that turns an API call or web form into a delivered text message. Full guide
Why didn't my OTP arrive?
Usually carrier filtering, an unregistered domestic route, a sender-ID rule in the destination country, or a silent GSM-7 to UCS-2 encoding change - not a dead network; check each in the deliverability linter. Full guide
How do AI agents send SMS?
Through an SMS API tool definition (REST call with to-number and text), with rate limits and human confirmation for bulk sends; SMSRoute's email-only signup and crypto top-up fit agent workflows. Full guide
How do I know if my SMS was really delivered?
A DLR only reports the SMSC's view - real confirmation means a test message received on an actual handset in the destination market. Full guide
What is a fake DLR?
A delivery report that claims DELIVRD without terminal handset confirmation - a known pattern on some multi-hop routes, caught by real-number testing. Full guide
Why did my SMS sender name change to a number?
Some markets replace or block unregistered alphanumeric sender IDs, and some routes rewrite them - sender-ID preservation is testable per route. Full guide
Should I test SMS before sending a campaign?
Yes - a handful of test messages at the published per-message rate can catch a filtered or altered route before a full sendout burns the budget. Full guide
How can I test SMS delivery to another country without a local SIM?
Delivery-testing services send your message to real local numbers and report what arrived; SMSRoute accounts include free test credits that prove delivery. Full guide
What does an HLR lookup tell me?
Whether a number is live and which network currently serves it (portability-aware) - not whether the recipient consented or whether content will pass filters. Full guide
What is an MCC-MNC code?
A two-part E.212 identifier - mobile country code plus mobile network code - naming the network a code block is assigned to, used in routing, DLRs and IMSIs. Full guide
Can message content change during SMS delivery?
Yes - re-encoding, truncation and template rewriting can alter what arrives; content-integrity testing compares the sent and received text. Full guide
What is a transactional SMS route?
A path intended for recipient-expected messages like OTPs and receipts; promotional content on such routes is commonly filtered. Full guide
What is a grey route in SMS?
A delivery path that bypasses the destination's official interconnect agreements - often cheaper, with less predictable delivery and sender-ID handling. Full guide
How many segments is my SMS?
It depends on encoding and length: GSM-7 text fits 160 characters in one segment (153 per part when concatenated) while any character outside GSM 03.38 forces UCS-2 at 70 (67 concatenated) - the deliverability linter shows the split for a real message. Full guide
Why is my SMS billed as three messages?
Because multipart messages are commonly billed per segment: one character over a boundary (160 GSM-7 or 70 UCS-2) adds a whole extra segment, and concatenation overhead lowers each part's capacity to 153 or 67 characters. Full guide
What do SMS DLR status codes mean?
SMPP defines eight message states - ENROUTE is intermediate (UNKNOWN is operationally non-final), while DELIVERED, EXPIRED, DELETED, UNDELIVERABLE, REJECTED and ACCEPTED are final - and each asserts an SMSC-level outcome, not handset proof. Full guide
How do I design an SMS test matrix?
Vary the four axes that change outcomes - destination market, encoding, sender type and content variant - send each cell to a real handset in-market, and record delivery, displayed sender, content integrity and latency. Full guide
Which SMS route quality metrics matter?
Submit-to-DLR latency percentiles (p50/p95), final-delivery ratio, handset-confirmed rate, sender-ID preservation and drift over time - and a uniform 100% delivered figure is itself a warning sign. Full guide
Will my sender ID be preserved?
Not always - registration regimes and route downgrades can replace an alphanumeric sender with a shortcode or generic number, so preservation has to be tested per market on a real handset. Full guide
How much does it cost to test an SMS route?
A test message costs the same published per-message rate as a campaign message - a dozen probes across two routes and three destinations costs well under a dollar at published rates and prices the risk of a blind blast. Full guide
How does SMSRoute compare providers honestly?
Every comparison cell quotes the provider's own published page with a retrieval date, and anything we have not measured - delivery quality, market share - is refused rather than estimated. Full guide
What is the difference between IMSI and MSISDN?
The MSISDN is the diallable E.164 number that SMS address fields carry, while the IMSI identifies the subscription to the network internally - an SMS API only ever needs the MSISDN. Full guide