>>That day has come that I always knew was coming. Customer now wants to send updates to customers via Text Message to their cell phones from within my VFP 9 management system. Anyone got any suggestions on how to and what with?
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>Perhaps you know you can send a text message using Outlook. Most cell phone provider make up an e-mail address for their clients in the format 5555551212@fido.com (the first part being the cell phone number). Using Outlook with this recipient will send a text message to the cell phone. All you need is to automate Outlook within VFP.

And most phone companies don't publish this email address, or have multiple kinds of such addresses and you don't know which one applies to a particular number. Some other companies trade this information in form of a service - you install their gadget, pass the parameters (i.e. phone number, text of message) to it, and it passes the message further, keeps track of its status, leaves a log etc. The rates, AFAIK, go about a few cents per message, with some creative billing (which is the trademark of the whole cell-messaging-providership industry).

update: I've just found that my provider has such a service with just two rules on how to get the email address from the number. Tried several times to send myself a message and it wasn't delivered - got a bounce email.