From SMS to Omnichannel: How Enterprises Are Optimizing Global Messaging

For decades, SMS held an unchallenged throne in business communications, it was universal and reliable. From security alerts to everyday updates, it became the trusted bridge between brands and their customers.

• Banks send your password resets through it. 
• Airlines confirmed your flights. 
• Retailers notified you of deliveries. 

A study by Mobilesquared revealed that, since mid-2021, the average cost to send an A2P SMS internationally has almost doubled from $0.033 to $0.0646. In that time, 90% of MNOs increased their international SMS fees. More than a third doubled them. This translated into an average price of $0.25 to send a single SMS into selected markets. 

That foundation remains strong, but the landscape is expanding.

Enterprises are enhancing their SMS strategies by integrating complementary channels, such as voice calls, WhatsApp, Telegram, RCS, and regional messengers, thus, creating richer, more flexible communication ecosystems. This evolution represents not a replacement, but a maturation of business messaging.

The shift reflects changing enterprise needs. While the overall mobile messaging market is expected to nearly double over the next two years, A2P (Application-to-Person) SMS is growing at a steady 5% globally, while enterprises simultaneously explore additional channels to complement their existing infrastructure.

In July 2025, a leading global enterprise analyzed its authentication traffic distribution and discovered an interesting pattern: 

• 25% of messages were flowing through Telegram 
• 10% through WhatsApp
• More than 10% through Voice
• Over a third of traffic was now diversified across multiple channels.

Why Enterprises Are Expanding Beyond SMS-Only

Enterprises are recognizing that along with SMS, different channels serve different purposes. The messaging landscape is evolving in response to three key market forces reshaping enterprise communication strategies.

1) Cost Optimization Through Channel Diversification

SMS pricing reflects the infrastructure investments required to maintain universal global coverage. Rates vary by market based on local carrier fees and network capacity requirements.

For authentication at scale, SMS costs can add up significantly. The global nature of SMS requires continuous network maintenance and expansion, which is reflected in pricing that can range from €0.00500 in the USA to €0.34571 in Indonesia, with the UK at around €0.03971 per message.

Smart enterprises are optimizing costs by using SMS for critical, time-sensitive communications while leveraging more economical channels for less urgent messages. This strategic approach maintains SMS for what it does best, guaranteed delivery and universal reach, while using alternatives where they offer cost advantages.

Cloud providers like AWS (Amazon SNS) and Twilio offer SMS services that scale globally, and enterprises are learning to balance these costs with complementary channels that may offer lower per-message rates for specific use cases.

2) Addressing Infrastructure Challenges: AIT and Data Integrity

The SMS ecosystem faces a significant challenge in Artificial Inflation of Traffic (AIT). Fraudulent intermediaries inject fake messages, generate false delivery reports, and extract fees, affecting up to 40% of traffic in some regions.

This creates operational problems beyond direct costs. Enterprises lost $1.6 billion to AIT in 2023, but the indirect impact is larger:

• Analytics teams see shadow “delivered” messages that never reached customers
• Product teams investigate conversion rate drops, assuming UX problems
• Marketing teams test endless hypotheses, chasing shadows in fraudulent data
• Actual users fail to receive time-sensitive OTPs, creating support tickets and abandoned transactions

When messaging infrastructure can't accurately report what's happening, optimization becomes impossible. For enterprises operating at scale, AIT undermines decision-making across the organization.

3) The Emergence of Complementary Channels

Modern authentication has evolved beyond single-channel approaches. Omnichannel solutions combining app-based authenticators, push notifications, email, passkeys, and SMS provide stronger security, better user experiences, and strategic flexibility.

RCS, despite implementation challenges, promises features that enhance traditional messaging.

Rather than viewing these as threats, forward-thinking enterprises see them as complementary tools. SMS excels at universal reach and critical notifications, while other channels handle marketing content, customer service conversations, and less time-sensitive communications.

The Complementary Channels: Understanding the Ecosystem

Let's examine the specific alternatives enterprises are integrating alongside SMS, because understanding these channels reveals how messaging infrastructure is becoming more sophisticated and resilient.

1) Voice: The Strategic Alternative

Voice OTP is another way to send verification codes, alongside SMS. Instead of getting a text, users can:

• Receive a call that reads the code aloud.
  
• Use flash calls, where the OTP is hidden in the last digits of a missed call. The user doesn’t answer, the app reads the number automatically.
  
  

For small businesses with limited budgets, SMS and messaging apps are cheaper and reach more people. But voice calls often bring higher-quality customers, especially in areas like insurance, real estate, and premium services. Even if calls cost more, they can earn more revenue.

Smart marketers look at customer value over time. If voice calls bring customers worth three times more than SMS customers, spending a bit more upfront is worth it. This helps businesses decide where to spend money wisely.

Early Challenges & Current Opportunities

At first, voice OTP had problems, that is, robotic voices or mysterious missed calls confused users. But now, with better onboarding, improved text-to-speech, and clear instructions, voice OTP works as well, or even better, than SMS.

For telecom operators, voice OTP is a new way to make money. Flash calls use normal voice networks, so operators can charge for them instead of treating them as free or “gray” traffic. With proper pricing and fraud controls, flash calls can become a reliable revenue stream alongside SMS.

2) OTT Messengers: The Engagement Powerhouses

WhatsApp, Telegram, Viber, Zalo, and regional equivalents have become powerful channels for business communications, particularly for conversational and marketing content.

The value proposition is compelling, that is, costs up to ten times lower than SMS, global reach, rich media support, chatbot capabilities, and genuine two-way conversations. Integration is straightforward, platforms like WhatsApp Business and the Telegram Bot API enable enterprises to connect and start sending within days.

From a user experience perspective, messengers excel for many communication types. Messages arrive in apps users check constantly, support confirmation buttons, images, tracking links, and conversational flows. Engagement rates are often dramatically higher because users actively monitor their messenger apps.

However, messenger-based communications work differently than traditional SMS:

• The economics have shifted for intermediaries. With SMS, pricing was opaque with healthy margins. With messengers, pricing is public and competitive, everyone sees what Meta or Telegram charges. This means intermediaries must create value through integration services, management tools, analytics, and automation rather than simply marking up message costs.
• Platform fragmentation requires managing multiple integrations. Meta won't carry Telegram traffic, WeChat operates independently in China. Each platform requires separate integration, content optimization, and management, enterprises operating globally must juggle multiple APIs.
• There's a growing concern about message routing integrity. Some intermediaries have been caught rerouting messages inappropriately, a customer's Telegram OTP arriving via WhatsApp instead, for instance. While the OTP arrives, users are understandably confused, creating support overhead and brand reputation challenges.
• Telecom operators are navigating complex relationships with messenger platforms. Some pragmatically partner with Meta, reselling WhatsApp Business services to enterprise customers and sharing revenue. This collaborative approach recognizes that messengers serve different purposes than SMS, and both can coexist profitably.

3) RCS: The Advanced Native Messaging Solution

Rich Communication Services represents the evolution of native messaging infrastructure. Backed by Google and now supported by Apple, RCS offers rich media, verified sender IDs, chatbots, interactive buttons, and features that make messengers appealing, built into smartphones' native messaging systems.

RCS works beautifully in markets where carriers have committed to full implementation. In these regions, it provides SMS-like universality with messenger-like capabilities.

However, RCS faces implementation challenges. Onboarding can take up to three months, involving extensive verification, brand checks, and approvals. For enterprises accustomed to instant messenger API access, this timeline is challenging.

• Coverage varies globally, RCS functions seamlessly in some markets but has limited availability in others. This inconsistent reach makes it difficult for enterprises to rely on exclusively for global communications.
• RCS was developed primarily for marketing communications, rich, interactive promotional messages. For authentication and transactional messaging (OTPs, receipts, shipping notifications), SMS often performs better due to faster delivery times. RCS's media loading can introduce latency that matters for time-sensitive codes.

Casas Bahia and Vivo Brazil are notable success stories in Brazil, where major mobile operators collaborated to ensure full RCS coverage nationwide. That coordinated industry effort provides enterprises with the universal reach they need.

4) The Multi-Channel Reality: What Enterprises Actually Need

Modern businesses are adopting sophisticated multi-channel strategies where systems automatically select optimal channels based on cost, reliability, user preference, and content type:

• Send OTPs via SMS for guaranteed delivery and universal reach
• Deliver marketing content through RCS or messengers where rich media enhances engagement
• Use voice in specific markets where it offers cost or delivery advantages
• Maintain SMS as the reliable fallback when other channels aren't available

This requires sophisticated orchestration infrastructure that can integrate multiple channels, track deliverability across all of them, optimize routing in real-time, and provide unified analytics. Enterprises want partners who can provide this orchestration layer seamlessly.

They also demand transparency:

• No gray routes violating platform terms of service
• No artificially inflated costs
• No AIT fraud corrupting analytics 

Clean, honest, reliable infrastructure where they pay fair prices for delivered messages.

This represents an evolution from traditional SMS aggregation, requiring telecom companies to expand their role in the value chain while maintaining SMS as a critical component.

The Telco Opportunity: Lead the Multi-Channel Evolution

For telecommunications operators, the strategic opportunity is significant: 

position yourself as the trusted orchestration partner for the multi-channel future.

This requires several strategic initiatives:

1. Monetize emerging channels properly

Voice OTP and flash calling are being adopted by enterprises. Rather than viewing these as threats, legitimize these services, apply appropriate pricing, implement anti-fraud controls, and turn them into complementary revenue streams alongside SMS.

2. Partner strategically with messenger platforms

Collaborate with platforms like Meta to resell WhatsApp Business services to enterprise customers. This captures revenue share while maintaining customer relationships, positioning operators as multi-channel solution providers rather than SMS-only vendors.

3. Become the multi-channel orchestration partner

Evolve from SMS aggregator to comprehensive messaging platform integrating SMS, voice, RCS, and multiple messengers. Provide routing intelligence, fallback logic, and unified analytics. This more complex business is also more defensible and valuable, with SMS serving as the reliable foundation.

4. Drive coordinated RCS adoption

RCS succeeds through industry cooperation. Mobile operators working together can ensure complete coverage in their markets, simplify onboarding from months to days, and price attractively. RCS represents an opportunity to enhance the messaging ecosystem while maintaining operator relevance.

5. Clean up fraud and strengthen trust

AIT undermines confidence in messaging infrastructure. Implement robust anti-fraud measures, cooperate on industry-wide solutions, and prove that messages sent through your infrastructure actually reach destinations. Reliability and data integrity are competitive advantages.

Operators who lead this evolution will capture the economics of multi-channel messaging while maintaining SMS as a critical, profitable component. Those who resist multi-channel strategies risk being bypassed by enterprises who will seek orchestration solutions elsewhere.

The Bigger Picture: The Future of Business Communications

Business communications are evolving from single-channel dependency into a sophisticated ecosystem where different channels serve different purposes, each with distinct strengths.

SMS isn't diminishing, it's becoming the reliable foundation of a larger orchestra. It retains critical relevance for specific use cases:

• Universal reach in markets regardless of smartphone penetration
• Guaranteed fallback when other channels fail
• Regulatory compliance in industries with strict message delivery requirements
• Time-sensitive authentication where delivery certainty matters most

Its role is evolving from being the only channel to being the essential channel, the one that always works, everywhere, for critical communications.

For enterprises, this evolution creates both opportunity and complexity. Opportunity to optimize for cost and effectiveness across multiple channels. Complexity in managing multi-channel infrastructure, which requires technical sophistication and operational overhead, creating demand for expert partners.

Ready to Build Your Multi-Channel Messaging Strategy?

The future of business communications is built on a foundation of reliable SMS enhanced with intelligent channel orchestration. Whether you're looking to optimize authentication costs, improve delivery rates, or create richer customer experiences, the right multi-channel partner makes all the difference.

Don't navigate this evolution alone. Our team specializes in helping enterprises design and implement messaging strategies that leverage SMS's universal reliability while strategically integrating voice, RCS, and messenger platforms for maximum efficiency and engagement.

Schedule a Free Consultation to discover how a properly orchestrated multi-channel approach can reduce your messaging costs by up to 40% while improving delivery rates and customer experience. Book a demo today!

Frequently Asked Questions

Is SMS being replaced by messengers and other channels?

No, SMS is being enhanced, not replaced. SMS remains the most reliable, universal channel for critical communications. Enterprises are now using SMS strategically alongside complementary channels, messengers for marketing, voice for cost optimization, and RCS for rich media. SMS is evolving from being the only tool to being the essential foundation of a multi-channel toolkit.

Why are SMS costs higher than messenger platforms?

SMS pricing reflects the infrastructure required for truly universal global coverage across all carriers and devices. Unlike messengers operating over internet connections, SMS requires continuous network maintenance and carrier partnerships to reach any mobile phone worldwide, including basic feature phones. For critical communications like authentication codes, that guaranteed delivery justifies the investment.

What is AIT (Artificial Inflation of Traffic) and how does it affect my business?

AIT occurs when fraudulent intermediaries inject fake messages and generate false delivery reports, affecting up to 40% of traffic in some regions. Beyond the $1.6 billion in direct costs (2023), AIT corrupts analytics, making you think messages were delivered when they weren't, thus, undermining decision-making across teams. Choose messaging partners with robust anti-fraud controls and transparent reporting.

Should I switch entirely from SMS to messengers for authentication?

No. The smartest approach is multi-channel orchestration with SMS as your reliable foundation. Use messengers strategically for marketing and customer service, but maintain SMS as your primary authentication channel because it works everywhere, doesn't require internet connectivity, and offers universal reach.

What should I look for in a multi-channel messaging partner?

Look for true orchestration capabilities: intelligent routing based on cost and reliability, unified analytics across channels, transparent pricing without gray routes, robust anti-fraud controls, and proper fallback logic using SMS when other channels fail. Choose partners who position SMS as critical, not ones trying to convince you to abandon it. The best solutions enhance SMS with complementary channels.

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