In addition to being able to send text messages from a University of Otago-provided mobile phone, the University uses the One NZ multiTXT service which makes sending messages to one or more people interacting with University services, research, teaching, or administration simple and cost effective.
There are two options for using multiTXT: web application or email-to-text.
Email-to-text
This allows you to use Outlook to send a text message from a University of Otago email account using a specially-formatted address. This is the simplest and most common way of using multiTXT.
Web application
The web application provides greater functionality, including being easily able to see messages you have sent or received and access contact lists (if available). Other levels of access are available that enable administration of the multiTXT group. Your multiTXT group administrator/contact person can use the web application to manage access to the group (including email-to-text) and the group's settings (e.g. allowable length of messages).
Costs
multiTXT service costs are:
- $10 per month per group
- $0.08 for each standard-length text message sent (for example, if you send a group text to six recipients, you would be charged six lots of $0.08)
A standard length text message is 160 characters. The 160-character limit can be increased by your multiTXT group administrator to 459 characters if required. Any messages with over 160 characters the character limit for your group will be cut off.