How to Read an SMS Rate Sheet

A wholesale rate sheet is a spreadsheet of destinations and prices. It is built to be compared on one axis, and that axis is chosen by the person who sent it. Reading one well means reconstructing the columns that are not there.

What a rate sheet usually contains

Most look broadly like this: country, mobile country code and network code, operator name, price, currency, and sometimes a route type or a validity date. That is enough to sort by price and almost nothing else.

The MCC-MNC pair is the most useful column and the most ignored. It identifies the exact network, which matters because “Bangladesh” is not a route; it is at least four networks, and a supplier can be strong on one and weak on another. A rate sheet quoting a single country price without operator breakdown is averaging over networks that behave very differently.

The columns that should be there

When they are missing, ask for them. Each one changes the meaning of the price:

• Route type. Direct, transit, or unspecified. Without this the price cannot be interpreted.
• Sender ID support. Whether alphanumeric IDs are supported, whether they are preserved, and whether registration is required.
• Unicode support. Per destination, not per platform.
• Concatenation handling. Whether long messages are delivered as a single reassembled message or as separate parts.
• Billing unit. Per part or per submission.
• DLR type. Whether receipts are relayed from the operator or generated by the platform.
• Validity. The date the rate expires, and the notice period for changes.

Normalising two quotes

You cannot compare rate sheets directly. You can compare what they would cost you. Build one table with your own traffic in it:

1. List your destinations by operator, not by country, with your real monthly volume for each.
2. Add your typical message length and script per destination. Work out the number of billable parts under each supplier’s billing rule.
3. Multiply through. This gives you a like-for-like monthly cost.
4. Once you have test results, divide each supplier’s monthly cost by the messages that actually arrived. That is your true cost per delivered message.

The ranking after step four is frequently different from the ranking after step one. That is the entire point of the exercise.

Reading between the lines

Missing operators. A destination listed with three of four networks means the fourth is not covered, or is covered badly enough not to quote. Ask which.

Prices that are identical across every operator in a country. Real termination costs differ per network. A flat country price usually means the supplier is averaging, which is fine, or that they do not have per-operator visibility, which is less fine.

A very wide spread within one country. Often legitimate, one network may be genuinely expensive to terminate on. Worth asking about, because it sometimes indicates that one of the routes is a different type from the others.

No validity date. Means the rate is indicative. Treat it as such.

Rates quoted in a currency you do not hold. Ask what exchange rate applies and when it is set. Over a year this moves real money.

Questions to send back with the sheet

Three questions, and the quality of the reply tells you as much as the content:

1. For my top five destinations, is this rate a direct operator route or transit?
2. Is the price per message part or per submission, and are failed submissions billed?
3. How much notice will I get before any of these rates change?

A supplier who answers all three clearly and in writing is one you can build a forecast on. A supplier who answers none of them has given you a list of numbers, not a quote.

Related: what sits inside a per-message rate and our destination coverage, which lists route status per operator.