Yes! Your users can use any mobile phone to communicate with your SMS service.

Yes! Your users can use your SMS service even if they don't have internet access.

When using an Android phone as a SMS gateway, you will only need internet access for your own Android phone.

Any phone with Android 2.1 or higher (99% of Android phones) can be used as a SMS gateway with Telerivet. Any Android phone purchased new today should be compatible.

Generally we recommend using the most inexpensive Android phone you can find. It isn't necessary to spend a lot of money on a cutting-edge phone with high performance.

In many countries, the most affordable Android phone is currently the Huawei IDEOS, which can typically be purchased for less than $100.

If you are deploying the Android phone in a location with inconsistent electrical power, the most relevant specification is battery life. With a longer battery life, your phone will be able to stay in operation longer during power outages, assuming the mobile data network is still available. Often, inexpensive phones have better battery life than the newest high-performance phones.

Currently, most Telerivet users use a phone with Android 2.1 (Eclair), 2.2 (Froyo), or 2.3 (Gingerbread).

When you deploy your SMS service using an Android phone, you just need to ensure that:

• the Android phone is powered on
• the Android phone can access the internet
• the Android phone has credit to send messages
• the Android phone is not stolen

For more detailed recommendations on how to make your SMS service as reliable as possible, see the Android Maintenance Instructions.

In order to maximize the reliability of your Telerivet service, we recommend keeping the Android phone stationary and plugged in to power, such as in your office.

You may wish to store the phone in a locked drawer or cabinet to reduce the risk of theft.

We recommend configuring the phone to connect to a Wi-Fi network as the main method of internet connectivity, but also to set up a mobile data plan as a backup.

Setting up both Wi-Fi and mobile data improves the reliability of your service through power or internet outages. If the power goes out, or if your Wi-Fi network is otherwise not working, your phone will automatically switch over to the mobile data network.

No, it is not possible to change your Android phone's SMS Sender ID. All outgoing messages from your Android phone will appear on user phones with your phone number. (Changing the SMS Sender ID would prevent people from replying to your messages.)

Of course, you can include the name of your organization or service within the SMS messages that you send. You could also ask your users to add your phone number to their phone's address book so that future messages from your service will appear with your name, and so they can more easily send you messages.

We recommend that you keep this phone stationary, instead of using it as a regular mobile phone.

The phone needs an internet connection in order to relay messages to or from Telerivet.com, and your internet connection is likely to be unreliable if you are moving around with the phone. Also, the Telerivet app will reduce the time that your phone can operate on battery power.

It may be helpful to stop thinking of the phone you use for Telerivet as a mobile phone, and instead think of it as a ~$100 dedicated device that allows you to have an SMS service.

However, you can still use this phone as a stationary phone (e.g. an office phone), and use it to make and receive calls while the Telerivet app is running.

The rate at which Telerivet can send and receive messages depends on several factors, including your phone, your network, and the length of the SMS messages you're sending.

When sending SMS messages through an Android phone, Telerivet can typically send from 12 to 25 messages per minute, or about 1,000 messages per hour. When receiving incoming SMS messages through an Android phone, Telerivet can typically receive about 100 messages per minute, or about 6,000 messages per hour.

If you need to send messages faster, you can connect multiple Android phones to Telerivet. For example, if you connected five Android phones to Telerivet, you would be able to send up to about 5,000 messages per hour or receive up to about 30,000 messages per hour.

Be aware that each mobile network may have their own limits and rules to block bulk unsolicited ("SPAM") text messages. If your Android phone sends too many messages to too many different users in a short period of time, the mobile network may block your Android phone without warning. If you plan to send SMS messages at a high rate, you may wish to contact your mobile network to inquire about their usage limits.

Telerivet also supports Twilio, which would enable you to send messages at higher rates from phone numbers and shortcodes in the U.S. (+1), U.K. (+44), and a few other countries, without using an Android phone.

Telerivet is optimized to work in locations with unreliable electricity. The Telerivet app uses a very small amount of battery, so that your SMS service will continue working for the longest possible time after the power goes out (as long as the mobile phone and data networks are still working).

Battery life varies depending on your phone, as well as the number of messages you send and receive, but a typical Android phone should be able to run the Telerivet app for up to 2 days without electricity.

In our testing, our LG GT540 was able to run continuously on battery for 6 days 15 hours while connected to a 2G data network (without sending or receiving messages).

The Telerivet app sends or receives approximately 25 KB per hour (600 KB per day) over the phone's internet connection, plus about 3 KB for each incoming message and 4 KB for each outgoing message. Incoming MMS messages use additional data, varying depending on the size of the multimedia files.

Even when the Android phone is connected to the mobile data network, Telerivet's data usage is very inexpensive. For example, a SMS service in Tanzania that receives an average of 100 SMS messages and sends 100 replies each day would use approximately 40 MB of data per month, which would cost 2,000 Tsh ($1.25) from Vodacom.