Clear, Transparent Communication Costs

Crises Control communication costs are the usage-based charges for Short Message Service (SMS) messages, audio phone calls and audio or video conference calls sent through the platform. Mobile and desktop app push notifications, email notifications and Microsoft Teams communications are included at no additional usage charge, with Teams communications included where the Microsoft Teams Integration has been purchased. Each chargeable communication is calculated using your organisation’s agreed communication rates. See how the Crises Control platform works for an overview of every channel.

Four communication methods are included with the Crises Control platform at no additional usage charge: mobile app push notifications, desktop app push notifications, email notifications and Microsoft Teams communications. Microsoft Teams communications are included where the Microsoft Teams Integration has been purchased. Push notifications reach users directly through the Crises Control mobile and desktop apps, and email reaches recipients without additional usage charges.

SMS messages, audio phone calls, audio conference calls and video conference calls are the communication methods charged based on usage. SMS messages are charged by the number of SMS units used and the destination country, phone calls by duration and destination, and conference calls by the number of participants and duration. Your organisation’s agreed communication rates apply to every chargeable communication. Read why organisations combine several channels in our blog on multichannel redundancy in mass notification software.

SMS communication costs are calculated for each message sent by multiplying the number of SMS units the message uses by the applicable rate for the destination country. A message containing 329 standard characters would use 3 SMS units, so its cost is 3 SMS units multiplied by the applicable rate for the destination. The total charge depends on the destination country, number of SMS units, message length, character encoding and your organisation’s applicable communication rate. SMS is one of several channels in Ping mass notification software, alongside push, email, voice and Microsoft Teams.

A message uses one SMS unit for up to 160 standard characters, and longer messages use multiple SMS units. Once a message is longer than 160 standard characters, it is typically sent in parts of up to 153 characters each, so a 329-character message uses 3 SMS units. Special characters or different character encoding can reduce how many characters each unit holds and increase the number of units used. Our guide to multi-language emergency communication explains when messages in other languages are needed.

Standard characters come from the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) 7-bit alphabet, so one SMS unit can hold up to 160 of them, while special characters such as emoji, some accented letters and non-Latin scripts need Unicode encoding, which limits one SMS unit to 70 characters. A message that contains even one special character can use more SMS units than the same length of standard text. Both character sets are defined in the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) TS 23.038 specification. Multilingual alerts are common in practice, as our earthquake response case study with a Turkish automotive manufacturer shows.

Phone call costs are calculated from the duration of the call and the destination it is made to. Longer calls, and calls to destinations with higher rates, cost more. Your organisation’s agreed communication rates apply to every chargeable call. Voice calls give people another way to receive an alert when data services are unavailable, as our blog on what happens when email, Teams and Slack go offline explains.

Audio and video conference call costs are calculated from the number of participants, the duration of the conference and the applicable communication rate. Adding participants or extending the conference increases the total charge. Conference calls let response teams talk through an incident together, and Crises Control incident management software keeps the tasks and decisions that follow in one place.

Yes, the cost of SMS messages and phone calls can vary depending on the destination country. Telecommunications networks in different countries charge different amounts to deliver messages and connect calls, so the applicable rate can differ for each destination. Crises Control can reach users in more than 200 countries, and you can check coverage in the list of supported countries. See how one organisation reaches people across six continents in our managed service provider case study.

No, the examples on this page explain how communication usage is calculated and do not represent fixed or standard pricing. Actual communication costs depend on the communication method, destination country, duration, number of participants, SMS length, character encoding and your applicable communication rate. Any customer-specific pricing agreement also applies. Book a live demo to discuss the communication rates for your organisation.

Yes, where specific communication pricing has been agreed as part of your contract, those rates apply to your chargeable communications. Contracted rates take precedence over the illustrative examples provided on this page. If you are unsure which rates apply to your organisation, contact the Crises Control team.

Crises Control holds ISO 27001 certification for information security management, and the platform is built to support General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) obligations. Every alert, acknowledgement and escalation is timestamped in an audit trail, giving you a clear record of the communications sent during an incident. You can review our certifications on the accreditations page.