Virtual SMSC Implementation and Transit by Agus S

Business Model

Small or new telecommunications operators may want to minimize their initial capital
expenditures. The virtual SMSC offers these operators a way to provide SMS
service to their customers without buying an SMSC. They use a third-party SMSC
that charges them on the basis of the amount of SMS traffic, so revenues can be generated
without any investment.

Having transit agreements is a way for large or medium operators to get additional
revenues by renting their roaming agreements to a third party (the SMS interworking
network), but they retain full, legal responsibility for their use. The SMS
interworking network will pay the operator for any SMS sent within its roaming
agreements.

The subjects of virtual SMSC and transit agreements are treated within the same
chapter because any third party implementing a virtual SMSC for an operator (main
SMSC or backup SMSC) has access to all roaming agreements for the sending of
SMS-MT as explained in this chapter. The first part of the chapter covers SMS-MO
and virtual SMSCs; the second covers the various implementation of transit agreements.
The only setup is that of STPs or GMSCs to provide specific routing based on
a GT. The third part concerns the implementation of multiple transit agreements in
the same equipment and explains how several international gateways can be
addressed.

Principle of the Virtual SMSC: Architecture and Billing of SMS-MO
Architecture

The provision of SMS service can be entirely subcontracted to an SMS interworking
network. The real SMSC may be in another country, as illustrated by thats Figure on top page.