All about SMS mechanism and Grey Routes

Whenever someone sends a message or receives a message it is through a network provider who will carry your message and charge you for the same. Whenever you send a message, two possibilities arise, they are:

Message delivery system

1) On Net: When you send a message to someone else, if the receiving person avails services of the same network provider as you, the sending and receiving is done by the same network and the process is called on net.

2) Off Net: When ever the person you are sending message to, uses services of some other network provider as you do, the SMS is sent and received off net. 

These are both the delivery systems that are followed while availing Person to person network services, where on net and off net services are used by telecom companies to provide you services. Things change when you use Application to Person services for messaging.

What are Application to Person service

Application to Person services: Application to person telecom service providers use internet to send and receive messages. These A2P service providers can either tie up with other Telecom network providers and deliver their messages on the off net agreement basis or use Grey route to deliver messages. 

What is Grey Route:

There can be two scenarios through which your A2P service provider might deliver the message to the receiver. These are:

1) White route: If you are on a vacation and using roaming services, your A2P service provider will link with other local telecom service provider who provides roaming services in collaboration with local service provider of the place of your visit and charge roaming charges for the same. This is the white route.

2) Grey route: Your A2P service provider will find the local telecom service provider whose roaming facilities you are availing while on vacation, help the service provider monetize its assets by paying it a small fraction of money of what other telecom networks pay for off net services, and provide you cheaper SMS facilities.

How does using Grey route affect telecom companies:

When A2P service providers start using Grey route or network of other service providers to deliver their own services, they are basically using some other network to deliver your message without paying the other network. This not only creates more than expected traffic on network which can result in communication breakdown, it also costs network service providers chunk of money.

If you too run a business of P2P network provider and are loosing valuable money because of Grey route, Telepacket can help your business. Telepacket Firewall checks every message separately to find out the route taken by message and blocks messages coming from Grey route and protects your network.