In some countries, ‘dropped SMS’, where SMS don’t get through to the recipient, can be a problem. Varying signal and power supply at the FrontlineSMS hub can also impact the reliability of message sending.

It is very difficult to get relieable data on this from mobile network operators, but you could conduct your own simple test by sending a number of test messages and recording what happened to all of them. For example, if you send 100 test messages (test-1, test-2, test-3 and so on) and only 97 arrive, then you can conclude that your service will be 97% reliable.

Of course, this is not a large sample, but how far you go to achieve a large dataset and how much risk you are willing to tolerate in terms of ‘dropped’ messages are both project management decisions for you to make based on the size of your budget and the nature of your messages.

For an example of one such test, read Michael Benedict’s post on the ICTWorks blog.