TS gives you the option to send alerts to your mobile/cell phone.  There are two different SMS providers (or "gateways") available.  One is free with limited coverage, and the other (Clickatell) is not free but covers most of the planet.  It's pretty cheap though.

Here you can see the coverage of the free SMS gateway (www.webservicex.net/sendsmsworld.asmx).  At time of writing, the coverage was:

• Austria - Mobilkom
• Brazil - ATL express, Telemig Cellular
• Bulgaria - Mobiltel
• Canada - Bell Mobility, Clearnet, Rogers AT&T Wireless, Telus
• Croatia - Cronet
• France - Itineris
• Germany - E-Plus, Mannesman D2
• India - Essar Cell Phone, RPG Cellular
• Israel - Pelephone
• Japan - NTT Docomo
• Lithuania - Omnitel
• Malaysia - Celcom
• Maldives - Dhiraagu
• New Zealand - Messagetrack
• Norway - NetCom, TeleNor
• Spain - MoviStar
• Switzerland - Bluewin
• Ukraine - Golden Telecom, UMC
• USA - Ameritech Cellular services, Cellular One, Cingular, Comcast Cellular Communications, Voicestream Wireless Corp.

Should you be lucky enough to fall within that coverage, you don't need to create a Clickatell account.  Similarly, if your mobile/cell phone can receive email messages, just get TS to send you alerts via email instead of SMS.

However, if you can't use the free provider, and your phone can't receive emails, then you'll have to open a Clickatell account.

Fortunately, Clickatell will give you 10 free credits so you can test that it works before paying any money.  If it works and you're happy, you then purchase some SMS credits from them.

Following these links will show you the coverage (http://affiliates.clickatell.com/central/campaigns/redir.php?cid=2650) and prices (http://affiliates.clickatell.com/central/campaigns/redir.php?cid=2647) of Clickatell.  Then follow these instructions to open an account:

1. Follow this link to register (http://affiliates.clickatell.com/central/campaigns/redir.php?cid=2653).
2. Fill in your details (which includes choosing a username and password), and click the "Continue" button.  They will send different verification codes to your phone and your email address, so both need to be correct.
3. Type in those verification codes, and click the "Verify Now" button.
4. You should now be logged in to your Clickatell account.  But there's more to do...
5. Click the "Manage my Products" link (at the top, just below the header).
6. In the "HTTP/S" paragraph, click the "Add connection" link.
7. The next page has a whole lot of fields that you don't need to fill in.  E.g. IP Lock Down, Callback Url, etc.  Just fill in the "Name" field.  This can be anything you like.  I used "My HTTP/S connection".
8. Click the "Submit" button.
9. That connection should now appear in a list at the top of the page you are taken to.
10. Note the "API ID" of your connection.

Now you are all set to go.  When you enter these details into the SMS section of TS, you will need to type in your Clickatell username and password, and the API ID.

Here are a couple of extra points of interest:

• If you're still looking at the Clickatell page from before, you can see your Client ID in the header.  Note that down.  You'll need to enter this along with your username, next time you want to login to the Clickatell site.
• Also in the header is an "Buy SMS Credits" link.  But you should have been given 10 free credits, and before buying any more credits, you should use those 10 free ones to test that TS can actually send SMS to your phone through Clickatell.
• While using the free credits, the actual text sent by TS will not show on your phone.  Instead you'll just get a "Clickatell test message".  But at least you'll be able to determine that text messages can be sent to your phone by TS, and approximately how quickly they turn up.

If everything works fine, then use the "Buy SMS Credits" link mentioned above to purchase SMS credits from them.

TS is an affiliate of Clickatell, and we receive 10% of the money you pay to them.  We didn't choose Clickatell because of the money.  In fact at first we decided to use Clickatell, and then thought that if if we're sending business their way anyway, we might as well join their affiliate program and reap the rewards on offer.  If only all the companies we use had similar offers... *sigh* :-)

Note that we stop receiving commissions 6 months after you join up, so if you were a real friend, you'd create a new account every 6 months using the links here :-)