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Autorouter updates (merged)

It’s really nice for these uncontrolled airfields with little / no relevant TAF!

Just got this by email:

Dear Peter,
we would like to inform you that we have disabled SMS notifications on your autorouter account.
We have decided to phase out SMS delivery due to its inherent unreliability and costs incurred.
Your account is setup to receive notifications via Telegram so you will not miss out on any notification.
We hope for your kind understanding.
Sincerely,
Your autorouter team

Surprised it lasted that long!

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

While I understand the cost issue (and would happily pay for it!), I’m surprised that SMS is deemed “unreliable”. I would have thought it more reliable than a data connection (for Telegram or email).

ELLX

lionel wrote:

While I understand the cost issue (and would happily pay for it!), I’m surprised that SMS is deemed “unreliable”. I would have thought it more reliable than a data connection (for Telegram or email).

That depends on how you view it… As long as you have an internet connection, Telegram seems to be 100% reliable. If you don’t have an internet connection, SMS may still reach you phone, but it is less reliable as soon as roaming is involved. (At least that’s my experience.)

ESKC (Uppsala/Sundbro), Sweden

In general, if you have mobile data you will have SMS working too, because SMS runs on the basic GSM system, and mobile data is accessed by the modem going online (on GSM) and dialling with “ATDT*99#”. So, no GSM → no mobile data.

But vice versa may not be true. A huge % of the time when airborne one gets a strong signal, and SMS has a chance of getting through, but no mobile data for hours. France and Belgium especially but it is growing.

OTOH the context of this is the SMS ack for filing or delaying a FP, which will rarely be done airborne, and which must have mobile data anyway…

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Peter wrote:

OTOH the context of this is the SMS ack for filing or delaying a FP, which will rarely be done airborne, and which must have mobile data anyway…

Muaah. I did exactly that, cancelling/delaying my next flightplan while flying the previous one according to inflight contingencies.

Airborne_Again wrote:

If you don’t have an internet connection, SMS may still reach you phone, but it is less reliable as soon as roaming is involved

Now that you jog my memory by mentioning roaming, I seem to remember getting a few days worth of SMS when going from Greece to Israel or vice-versa indeed.

ELLX

lionel wrote:

I seem to remember getting a few days worth of SMS when going from Greece to Israel or vice-versa indeed.

Had similar experiences recently. I found that switching to the Vodafone network manually in Greece helps with SMS that need to be delivered via roaming. The other two providers (Cosmote and Wind) don’t seem to route roaming SMS properly.

ESME, ESMS

Peter wrote:

In general, if you have mobile data you will have SMS working too, because SMS runs on the basic GSM system, and mobile data is accessed by the modem going online (on GSM) and dialling with “ATDT*99#”. So, no GSM → no mobile data.

Sure, but the problem is not getting the SMS from the network to the phone. The problems start when several networks are involved and you’re roaming. The transmission of SMS between networks is not completely reliable.

ESKC (Uppsala/Sundbro), Sweden

From here

able to spit out SMS with these data on any number?

That was disabled a month ago…

Last Edited by Ibra at 24 Aug 07:37
Paris/Essex, France/UK, United Kingdom

Last time I was involved with AR admin, a few years ago, the messages were costing AR about $0.07 each. Originally it was regarded as a useful part of promoting the product and cornering the market, but a few years later and with no real prospect of it making real money it was clearly decided to reduce costs.

The reliability argument is spurious. SMS is more reliable than mobile data in many scenarios.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom
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