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Each college has a monthly limit of 25,000 SMS segments, shared among Recruitment, Marketing, and Student Affairs. When sending SMS campaigns, messages are divided into segments, each charged individually, so understanding message segmentation is essential to managing costs. 

Note

Additional SMS pricing is $15.00 for every 1,000 additional segments per month.

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🗨️ SMS Segmentation

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titleWhat is an SMS segment? Why SMS Segments Matter?

In SMS campaigns, messages are divided into segments, each incurring a charge. Each college has a shared monthly limit of 25,000 segments among the Recruitment, Marketing, and Student Affairs teams. If this limit is exceeded, the college is responsible for additional costs.

Phone carriers use segments to batch and bill text message deliveries. SMS (Short Messaging Service) restricts message length based on the encoding type:

  • GSM-7 Encoding: Supports up to 160 characters of basic text per segment.

  • UCS-2 Encoding: Allows up to 70 characters per segment when emojis or certain special characters are used.

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titleCalculating SMS Segments

SMS messages have a basic limit of 160 characters using GSM-7 encoding or 70 characters with UCS-2 encoding. When these limits are exceeded, phones can still send longer messages by breaking them into smaller segments.

Note: Replying to messages in the SMS Inbox does not count toward the segment total (messages sent).

Message 1 (GSM-7): 160 characters of basic text per segment.

Message 2 (UCS-2): 70 characters per segment when emojis or special characters are used.

  • Text: Good evening, <Name Personalization> from [Insert College Name]. Are you still interested in attending in the Spring? Classes are open for January and February start dates today! Reply STOP to unsubscribe.

  • Message Length: 207 characters

  • Calculation: 207 characters / 160 characters = 2 segments

  • Recipients: 500 contacts

  • Total Segments: 2 segments × 500 contacts = 1,000 segments

  • Text: Good evening, <Name Personalization> from [Insert College Name]. Are you still interested in attending in the Spring? 📙 Reply STOP to unsubscribe.

  • Message Length: 148 characters

  • Calculation: 148 characters / 70 characters = 3 segments

  • Recipients: 800 contacts

  • Total Segments: 3 segments × 800 contacts = 2,400 segments

Resource: Use an SMS Segment Calculator Resource to determine the exact segments for your messages based on encoding and message length.

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