Understanding A2P Text Message Capping vs. Queueing is Easy as Pie

Written by: Aaron Alter

Smart Queueing vs. Capping

One of Telgorithm’s greatest differentiators across the messaging API provider landscape is our smart queueing tech. It auto-tracks your approved throughput (volume) limits and auto-manages how much traffic is going to each Carrier at a given time. This ensures that your messages are sent at maximum rates, or speed, across all of your Brands and Campaigns without ever exceeding your throughput limits so customers don't have to worry about blocked or dropped messages.

Note: When you pay to register 10DLC messaging traffic on The Campaign Registry, you’re ultimately paying for higher throughput. Smart queueing is the only solution for taking full advantage of your throughput, and essentially the only way to get what you paid for. 

The alternative? The majority of API providers are currently resorting to an approach called “capping”, which means sending your text messages to Carriers (AT&T and Verizon) at the lowest speed of all your Campaigns across all Brands. While you won’t exceed your throughput limits, you will experience unwanted delays, and if you have tens, hundreds, or thousands of Brands and Campaigns, the impact could be resounding. 

And finally, for T-Mobile specifically, these same carriers “lift the ceiling” on messages altogether and send all at once, which is a major culprit for all the disruptive** T-Mobile blockages** that businesses are running into.

Okay, we know this is all pretty technical, but we have a more entertaining way of explaining the difference between capping and Telgorithm’s smart queueing. You can think of these two message management approaches like dining at a restaurant for the first time. You’re not sure what to expect: will the prices match the quality? How large are the portions? And so on. Without having any prior knowledge, you wouldn’t necessarily know if you are being cheated. The current A2P SMS frontier is pretty similar…

Getting Capped at Cappy’s Cafe

You’ll be paying $100 at both Restaurant A, let's call it Cappy’s Cafe, and Restaurant B, the Q Diner. You’ve never been to either restaurant so you’re not sure what to expect. You sit down at Cappy’s Cafe (Restaurant A) – it’s not obvious to you, but behind the scenes the restaurant is understaffed and doesn’t have the technology to give you a high quality dining experience. You’re initially unphased because this is popular restaurant – you’ve heard the name, people in the area recommend it because it’s been around for so long – you assume it’s worth the hype. When your server arrives, they ask you to place your entire order all at once, which is jotted down on a piece of paper – a drink, an entree, and of course, dessert. Then, a table of eight is seated nearby. You overhear their orders being placed – drinks, several appetizers, entrees for each guest, and a round of desserts. You’re glad you got your order in before they sat down!

Back in the kitchen, the chef is reviewing all the orders. His staff and appliances can’t accommodate making and sending the courses out at different speeds for each table. The best he can do is time them all together – every diner will eventually receive each dish they ordered, but at the same time across the entire restaurant. 

Your drink comes out at the same time the large group’s drinks arrive – great! Then, you wait and watch as they receive appetizers, soups, and salads. Finally your entree arrives, as entrees are being placed on the group’s table. You finish quickly because you were very hungry at this point and it’s gotten late. But your dessert won’t be coming until the large group’s entrees are all cleared and all eight of their desserts are served. Even though you received your full order, you leave pretty unsatisfied because it took hours longer than it should have and you paid full price. 

Queueing Your Experience at Q Diner 

The next night you sit down at Q Diner (Restaurant B) – compared to Cappy’s, you notice the place is well staffed and everyone is equipped with fancy POS devices. However, another large table gets seated right after you, and you prepare for the worst. But the meal goes off without a hitch – your glass is kept flowing, your appetizer and entree are well-timed, and your dessert shows up just when you have enough room again. Perfection. You notice the large group is having a similar experience, but the speed of your courses haven’t been slowed down to match theirs – phew. You’re a bit surprised because Q Diner is a lot newer than Cappy’s Cafe, but you leave feeling happy and like you got exactly what you paid for. 

Back to A2P Messaging…

A2P SMS applications and platforms powered by API providers who are capping are essentially dining at Cappy’s Cafe, and from our perspective are being cheated. The solo diner can represent a Campaign (or messaging use case) that has been vetted and approved for specific throughput. To cap the solo diner because another group of diners are slower (or have been approved for a different throughput limit) is completely unfair. The solo diner experienced unwanted delays and still had to pay in full. 

This is why smart queueing is a fundamental necessity for A2P messaging. You need tech in place that will automatically track and manage the variables of your messaging Campaigns and ensure that messages are being sent at their exact approved rates. Partner with a team that’s looking out for you and your customer so you can both maximize revenue and scale your businesses. Schedule a demo with one of our SMS experts today!