Estonian startup called Fromdistance, has launched a product called FromSMS that enables you to create a totally free mobile gateway with the help of your phone. I’ve worked with SMS brokers and gateways in the past, and I can say that this is probably a very welcome move due to the outrageous service commissions the network operators are collecting.

The FromSMS webserver is connected to your web application through regular HTTP GET/POST and the FromSMS server connects to the mobile phone through few different technologies, the regular phone data connections such as 3G, EDGE, etc. or a WiFi to cut down on costs. Then of course your phone is the last post which sends out and receives the messages to your customers. For more information, have a look at the website.

It’s nice to see innovation like this nourish. I’m sure there are some scalability issues with this, but with a small service – this is a perfect match for smaller startups who want to test their concept online.