Originally Posted by
BOAC
Just popped back to say that if anyone else uses Sipgate for VOIP (a big
for that company) there is an add-on for FF which does exactly what I want. My thanks to Sipgate support staff. 'VoipCheap' have a facility on their softphone if you have an 'account' with them but they are the only ones I have found.
a big
if you expect this functionality to be anything other than a proprietary mish-mash of semi-functioning opportunistic bollox.
As mixture tried to explain to you, SMS exists due to it being part of the unused control bandwidth of GSM cellular traffic, whereas VoIP is all about standards-based encapsulation and reconstruction of voice into data packets.
VoIP therefore does not 'magically' enable you to ring anyone on earth. In order to call other network mediums, it's packets have to go through a gateway which is an expensive piece of kit and as far as you're concerned are only run by internet-based minutes-providers (e.g. Sipgate).
Any SMS-based functionality would therefore need to be a control function of a gateway run by the minutes-provider which was dedicated to GSM conversion and actually had the functionality to do SMS messages.*
VoIP softphones, in order to be useful, need to be heterogeneous. Hence they need to connect to multiple providers' standards-based VoIP PBXs.
There is no extension of the SIP standard in order to provide SMS messaging, so anything added into softphones for that functionality would in effect render the heterogeneous nature of that softphone flawed.
Hence, as per the first suggestion Mixture mentioned, get yourself an email-to-SMS service or website SMS service, because you're essentially asking why you can't watch Eastenders on your microwave oven.
(*I should know, I have one in the boot of my car)