Most carriers have “SMS gateways” which take email messages from the Internet and deliver them to their customers’ cell phones as SMS text messages. The trick is that you need to know what carrier the recipient’s phone is on — it’s not enough to know their phone number. That’s because the carrier determines what the email address of the receiving phone is going to be. For example, Cingular phones’ address are all “something@cingularme.com” while Verizon phones are “something@vtext.com.”
Sound complicated? It’s not. All you really need to do is find your carrier in the list below, and then use the pattern shown there to figure out your email address. If you want to send email to a friend’s phone, just ask them which carrier they use, and off you go!
(Note: For the major carriers, I’ve included a link to a page with more detailed information on how SMS works with that carrier, how much it costs, and where you can find more information. In the list below, just click any carrier’s highlighted name to find out more.)
Alltel
[10-digit phone number]@message.alltel.com
Example: 2125551212@message.alltel.com
AT&T (formerly Cingular)
[10-digit phone number]@txt.att.net
Example: 2125551212@txt.att.net
For multimedia messages, use [10-digit-number]@mms.att.net
Example: 2125551212@mms.att.net
Boost Mobile
[10-digit phone number]@myboostmobile.com
Example: 2125551212@myboostmobile.com
Cricket Wireless
[10-digit phone number]@sms.mycricket.com
Example: 1234567890@sms.mycricket.com
For multimedia messages: [10-digit phone number]@mms.mycricket.com
Example: 1234567890@mms.mycricket.com
Nextel (now part of Sprint Nextel)
[10-digit telephone number]@messaging.nextel.com
Example: 7035551234@messaging.nextel.com
Sprint (now Sprint Nextel)
[10-digit phone number]@messaging.sprintpcs.com
Example: 2125551234@messaging.sprintpcs.com
T-Mobile
[10-digit phone number]@tmomail.net
Example: 4251234567@tmomail.net
Verizon
[10-digit phone number]@vtext.com
Example: 5552223333@vtext.com
Virgin Mobile USA
[10-digit phone number]@vmobl.com
Example: 5551234567@vmobl.com
Other U.S. and Canadian carriers:
Bell Canada: [10-digit-phone-number]@txt.bellmobility.ca
Centennial Wireless: [10-digit-phone-number]@cwemail.com
Cellular South: [10-digit-phone-number]@csouth1.com
Cincinnati Bell: [10-digit-phone-number]@gocbw.com
Metro PCS: [10-digit-phone-number]@mymetropcs.com or [10-digit-phone-number]@metropcs.sms.us
Qwest: [10-digit-phone-number]@qwestmp.com
Rogers: [10-digit-phone-number]@pcs.rogers.com
Suncom: [10-digit-phone-number]@tms.suncom.com
Telus: [10-digit-phone-number]@msg.telus.com
U.S. Cellular: [10-digit-phone-number]@email.uscc.net
