SMS relay / SMS full support

[nster]

If you can get full SMS support, your clientele would SKYROCKET. Reason is that you would be offering a full cell phone plan basically. Ability to receive or forward to e-mail would still be a great achievement, even if this means partnering with another company just for SMS.

If you are worried about caps and stuff, you can start with a 150 or 250 or 500 outgoing/incoming SMS plan. I would gladly pay 3~7$/month or 35~80$ per year (paid in advance) for this, as that would merge the "texting phone number" and "calling phone number". Hell, for being able to receive texts or forward to email I would pay 30~40$ a year.

I just want to be with one company you know?

Currently there are alternatives for free canadian texting like heywire and textplus and some services like voxox can help unify your numbers.

If there is a way to make it a one time if it would be even better. To show I am serious, I'm willing to invest 100$ for FPL numbers to be able to receive texts or forwarded to e-mails, or 200$ if you manage to make a full-blown SMS (in a timely manner of course). I'm sure others would be willing to help out as well. Also note that many would be willing to pay a monthly fee for this as well, hell even an "activation" charge of 50$ + small monthly fee should be successful.

What kind of expenses are you guys looking at if you want to do this?

[TheHardy]

I think that more than the EXPENSE, it would be the infrastructure and set-up that this would require. Remember, I am not an INSIDER by any stretch of the imagination, but I am pretty sure that we are talking APPLES, ORANGES and BANANAS compared to what FPL currently has under the hood. Wireless infrastructure is completely different than wireline and different again from VOIP. It would be pretty easy to end up with a bad case of FRUIT SALAD and then have someone forget to stuff it in the FRIDGE and have it all SPOIL and go rotten.

I'd be happy to get their existing stuff working 100% bulletproof before throwing more loose nuts and bolts into the engine. That being said, I am not sure how well all these entities and issues PLUG-AND-PLAY into each other -- I could be waay off base and it simply would be a SNAP-IN operation. Then again, it could be a kludge-fest MacGyver-esque nightmare with a good healthy dose of Red Green and that super-sticky-metallic'y-gray tape thrown in!!

Don't get me wrong, I like your idea, and I can see where you are going with it. However, I personally am not sure how it meshes in with FPL's main goals and existing infrastructure and expansion plans! Like an iceberg, there's a whole lot more going on than what we SEE above the waterline!

[nster]

Thanks for the response! A tad bit too many analogies etc for me but

I understand that it may require a lot of work, but I personally believe that this would expand FPL in the right way. I see some other VOIP providers offer this service, and I see free and cheap services that offer this as well, just SMS ONLY. I imagine that merging FPL with an SMS only service is doable, and I also imagine that SMS relay is doable, albeit at an expense. If EXPENSE is a problem, I want to help, if it's the INFRASTRUCTURE then I would like a small summary of what is problematic.

I think that this would open FPL to a much larger share of the mobile market, as well as providing unique services that differentiate them from the rest. I also see a potential for profit, that I think FPL as a business doesn't seem as interested as they should be.

For QC residence, this option would mean a full fledge cell phone plan for dirt cheap. Videotron offers an internet stick/SIM card with 500MB per month for 6$/m (their "up to 21 Mbps" service) extra that your internet bill. 12$/m for 1GB and their up to 42Mbps speed service.