2026 Strategy: A Fix Isn’t “Just” a New Vendor

Your SMS vendor has a vendor.

Who has a vendor.

And somewhere at the end of that chain, a carrier decides your message isn’t worth delivering.

But sure – you saved $0.0003 per message.

Here‘s what rate shopping actually costs you:

→ Your traffic routes through 3-4 resellers before touching a carrier

→ Nobody owns deliverability because nobody owns the relationship

→ When you get filtered, everyone points fingers

→ Your “compliance” is only as good as the weakest link in the chain

→ You have zero visibility into why campaigns fail

The brands paying the least per message are paying the most in undelivered revenue.

25 years in telecom. I’ve watched this cycle repeat constantly: Brand chases cheapest CPM. Brand sees declining delivery rates. Brand blames “carrier filtering.” Brand switches vendors. Repeat.

The fix isn’t a new vendor. It’s fewer vendors.

Direct carrier relationships. One throat to choke. Actual compliance infrastructure not a PDF you signed during onboarding.

Cheap messages aren’t cheap. They’re just someone else’s margin stacked on someone else’s margin until your campaign is an afterthought.