FishText, the free and low cost personal SMS messaging service from CardBoardFish, was officially unveiled today. The service comprises of a Java application for mobile and an online web service, converging the two most popular methods of sending SMS into a single facility. Contacts and settings can be synchronised between the two, resulting in an optimal user experience.

The product of three years of precise development and vigourous testing, the arrival of FishText could not come soon enough for the planets 4+ billion mobile phone subscribers. Chastised by SMS text messaging prices that are more expensive than sending data into space, consumers have long flocked to the myriad of 'free' and 'cheap' text based services available hoping for a better deal. Unfortunately the majority have been bitterly disappointed by services offering a small coverage footprint, poor reliability and even services claiming to offer SMS when, in reality, they offer nothing more than a basic IM service.

FishText, developed using all of CardBoardFish's expertise in text messaging, offers the first real alternative to the mobile network operator for a user's SMS needs. Pricing starts at as little as EUR 0.015/GBP 0.01 per message, inclusive of delivery reports, and messages between subscribers of the service are free. Coverage stands at gargantuan 700 networks in more than 200 countries, all of which has been meticulously verified by CardBoardFish for carrier-grade reliability. Most importantly, FishText sends real SMS text messages.

Visit http://www.fishtext.com to learn more about FishText.

The Billing API accepts five different keywords, each performing a different action.

• Balance returns the live balance of a customer account.
• Services returns a list of services on a customer account in CSV format.
• Coverage returns the SMS coverage of a specified service on a customer account in CSV format.
• Subs returns a list of sub-accounts, and their balances, on a customer account in CSV format.
• Transfer allows for the transfer of funds between a customer account and its sub-accounts.

Through the use of the Billing API, customers will be able to achieve tighter integration of their systems with the CardBoardFish SMS gateway and benefit from the efficiencies of automating core account administration. For example, the data returned by the Coverage keyword includes the MCCMNC codes, allowing customers to fully automate coverage and pricing updates.

To learn more about the Billing API, and to view the associated documentation, please visit the support section here.

Webmaster SMS Tools has been launched today, initially providing four tools that can be integrated into websites and blogs for free. Each tool can be customised to complement the website or blog it is to be placed on, and offers users easy administration controls.

The four tools are: TextME, SMSBlog, SMSPoll and SMSComments. Each tool is placed on a website by inserting a small piece of code, and visitors/readers then interact with the tool by sending text messages to a UK long number, so no premium rate charges are applied.

CardBoardFish believes the tools will be of significant value to the blogging community, allowing writers to receive and reply to text messages from their visitors without revealing their mobile number, run real-time polls, create SMS comment boards and update their blog by text while on the move.

Instantly benefit from the possibilities of receiving incoming text messages with a Virtual Number from CardBoardFish. Available on a range of services, a Virtual Number is perfect for receiving replies to outbound messages or for use as an inbound method of communication.

Virtual Numbers are available for annual rental, and attract no additional charges for incoming messages received. Customers can add a Virtual Number to their HTTPSMS, Email2SMS, Personal and Desktop services now via their online CardBoardFish account.

The CardBoardFish Windows SMS Server is now available to download, instantly granting the power to integrate text messaging into other applications and projects, and can be used on all Business, Aggregator & Operator, and Large SMS accounts. The core functionality of this application is to run as a Windows service, interfacing between customer systems and the CardBoardFish SMS gateway.

The Windows SMS Server also provides the added benefit of simple batch creation. When provided with recipient mobile numbers and message content, it will automatically generate the files needed for transmission without requiring any additional software.

A new section has been added to the CardBoardFish website dedicated to assisting customers with general and technical support queries. Currently with approximately 150 in-depth articles and growing, the support area covers everything from how SMS works and how to contact support to more complex questions about individual CardBoardFish services and SMS protocols.

CardBoardFish now offers a range of services for non-business use that allow the easy messaging of friends and family from the desktop. Three applications are available at launch, designed to make the excellent value Personal SMS Service available on a broad spectrum of computer operating systems.

The applications available for download are: Windows Desktop SMS with IE Toolbar; Java Desktop SMS (Multi-OS, ideal for Linux users); and the Mac OS X Widget.

All of the applications support SMS message delivery to over 200 countries with delivery reports, a phonebook, and a detailed message history. Customers will also be able to verify their own mobile number to their choice of software, allowing messages to appear as if sent from it and replies to go directly back to their handset.

Virtual numbers will allow Personal customers to participate in two-way conversations without owning their own mobile phone, right from their desktop. Virtual numbers will be available to purchase later in the year.

Rackspace UK was selected to host CardBoardFish's core services due to its industry leading 100% Network Uptime Guarantee, special expertise and award winning Fanatical levels of service. This infrastructure, in combination with CardBoardFish's 24x7x365 technical support and monitoring and a huge selection of mobile operator connections, ensures that customers will always be able to send their SMS and expect instant delivery, at any time. For more information about Rackspace UK please visit http://www.rackspace.co.uk

To avoid the delay occurring between the time that a customer requests a new invoice and the time that they receive it from our billing staff, CardBoardFish now enables its customers to be in complete control of their finances. From the Billing section within the CardBoardFish Customer Account customers can generate CardBoardFish invoices instantly, so payment of funds can be initiated by bank transfer as soon as possible. Also available via the Billing section is a record of all outstanding and recently paid invoices, and access to comprehensive financial balance sheets to assist customers with their accounting needs.

CardBoardFish has released a version of its web based HLR Lookup account suitable for resellers due to generic branding and colours. As with the branded version, it allows large batches or individual mobile numbers to be processed quickly, and recorded online or exported to CSV format.

A second operator has now been integrated to provide increased redundancy, additional coverage and higher throughput for CardBoardFish’s HLR Lookup service. This service allows clients to determine whether a mobile number is valid and active, and what mobile network it belongs to, including whether the number is ported or not.

Due to increasing restrictions governing the type of traffic allowed over certain SMS routes, CardBoardFish is now offering SMS batch filtering services to aggregators and mobile operators. The filter works with the most common protocols including SMPP, UCP, and CIMD2 to provide a seamless integration into existing systems. It is capable of splitting incoming traffic into separate “streaming” and “batch” outputs, and allows batch messages to be rejected, or re-routed. As well as detecting batch messages, it can detect premium rate marketing messages specific to the destination country, and fully supports the delivery receipt return path.

CardBoardFish has invested in an industry grade GSM modem gateway and fixed GSM antennas to provide a robust infrastructure for its updated route monitoring system. Typically used for reliable wireless SMS transmission, and capable of receiving signal from mobile base stations over 20 miles (32km) away, CardBoardFish utilises the gateway solely for SMS route testing to 20 international GSM operators.

Through its commitment to provide an unrivalled level of quality, CardBoardFish has pioneered the most sophisticated SMS route monitoring platform available in the industry today. Capable of quickly and reliably detecting route downtime and delays, it can immediately re-route messages to provide a consistently high level of service 24/7.

The platform also employs several techniques to reduce false alarms and is capable of alerting CardBoardFish staff, as well as suppliers as soon as a problem is detected. Not only does it track message delivery time, the platform also monitors how long it takes for delivery receipts to be returned and can make routing decisions based on this information too.

A selection of graphs to clearly illustrate the performance of every SMS route, and to identify any patterns such as recurring periods of slower delivery times are also generated in real time. These allow the quality of an SMS route to be easily assessed both in terms of message delivery time, and delivery receipt return time.

Additional functionality has been added to the CardBoardFish Batch Sender system to allow SMS batches to be automatically started at any time up to 7 days ahead. It is also possible to automatically pause batches to prevent message delivery too late at night. This complements its already market leading feature set including automatic batch seeding, display of route status and queue information, multiple SMS route selection, and automatic route switching and load balancing.