Providers, senders and routing
Provider accounts, credential tests, sender approvals, least-cost routing and the go-live check.
Provider accounts#
Open Providers › Provider accounts to connect message providers: Africa's Talking, Infobip, SMPP connections, generic HTTP gateways, email, voice and others.
- Create the account (it starts disabled).
- Enter credentials. They go straight to the secrets store and are never shown again.
- Choose Test. The test runs from the dispatch worker and reports a clear reason if it fails:
| Reason | What to check |
|---|---|
| Authentication failed | Username, API key or password |
| Endpoint unreachable | The address, port and the provider's status |
| DNS failed | The host name |
| TLS failed | The port and encryption mode (for SMTP, 465 uses TLS from the start, 587 upgrades with STARTTLS) |
| Configuration invalid | A missing or malformed setting, such as the health URL |
| Egress blocked | The provider's address is not on the egress allowlist |
| Plain HTTP not allowed | The account uses http:// without the plain-HTTP permission |
- Set network prices and delivery-rate thresholds, then enable the account.
Replacement credentials can be staged and tested before activation, so you can rotate keys without downtime.
Go-live check#
Providers › Go-live check shows, for each real SMS provider, whether it is ready for real traffic: approved senders, the last submission, verified delivery reports and inbound messages, circuit state, delivery rate, balance reconciliation and alerts. Paste the delivery report URL and the inbound (STOP) URL shown here into the provider's dashboard. In production these must be public HTTPS addresses, and each event type has its own URL token.
Senders#
Providers › SMS senders is the approval queue for sender IDs requested by organisations. Approve per network, for the registered purpose only. Shared shortcode keywords are allocated here, unique per shortcode.
Routing#
Providers › SMS routing links an approved sender to providers:
- choose the message type (promotional or transactional) and network (Safaricom, Airtel, Telkom or any approved);
- choose the method: weighted preference, or least cost among healthy providers (using operator-entered per-part costs; ties keep the current order; a disallowed provider is never chosen);
- set a primary and up to two backups for failover.
Before every submission the dispatch engine checks network approval, provider status and kill switches. The route and cost used are shown on each send.
Other channels#
- Email domains: confirm tenants' sending domains and assign email providers.
- Telegram bots: activate bots and assign them to campaigns.
- Voice accounts: voice providers, numbers and missed-call settings.
- WhatsApp policy: the two WhatsApp switches. Both stay off unless there is a specific, documented decision; see WhatsApp.
- Social platform apps: credentials for social publishing, subject to each platform's app review.