Everything worth knowing, nothing that isn't.
What goes into the per-MT price
Four components. The operator's wholesale termination fee (the dominant cost — varies by country, by operator, by classification). The aggregator's margin. Sender-ID enforcement and compliance overhead. Risk premium for routes with higher dispute or failure rates. For UAE the wholesale fee to Etisalat / e& is roughly AED 0.025-0.045 per A2P message; aggregator retail typically AED 0.04-0.08.
Why prices vary by content classification
Most MENA regulators (and many EU ones) tier A2P pricing by content class — transactional (OTPs, alerts) is lowest, utility / service is mid, promotional / marketing is highest. The classification is set at sender-ID registration time and enforced by the operator. Mis-classifying a promotional campaign as transactional gets you suspended and back-billed at the promotional rate; honest classification is the cheaper outcome.
Volume tier and commitment
Most aggregators publish three or four volume tiers — under 100K/month at list price, 100K-1M at 10-15% discount, 1M-10M at 20-30%, 10M+ at negotiated. Annual commitment unlocks a further 5-10%. The break-even on commitment vs pay-as-you-go is usually around the 1M/month mark — below that, stay PAYG; above, negotiate.
Hidden costs to ask about
Five. Sender-ID setup and annual fees (often quoted separately). Inbound (MO) charges if you accept replies. Number rental for long virtual numbers. Account minimums per month. Cross-border routing surcharges for foreign destinations.