Quick answer: Hosted messaging (the category calls it "Hosted SMS" or "text-enabling") makes a phone number you already own SMS-capable without moving the number. Voice service stays with your current carrier; a hosting arrangement with that carrier overlays SMS routing onto the number; inbound texts deliver into Orbit. Your main business line, the landline on the storefront sign, the toll-free on the TV spot — people text it, and now you can answer. On Devotel Orbit the flow is one order: create it, sign the Letter of Authorization in-platform, submit to the hosting carrier, and inbound SMS starts landing on your webhook, inbox, or messaging service as soon as the order flips to active. When a port is the better tool, you port instead — and if you will eventually bring voice too, skip hosting and go straight to the port.
The problem it solves: your customers already text your phone number
Every published business number receives stray texts. A customer reads "Call or text" in an ad literally, a patient replies to the appointment line, a shopper hits the toll-free from a Google listing. Without hosted messaging those messages fall into a carrier dead-end and the sender never knows. The business loses the contact; the customer loses patience.
Buying a new messaging-only number works only if you are willing to publish a new number. Porting the number over works only if voice service can move with it. Hosted messaging exists for the constraint both miss: the number must stay where it is, and it needs SMS anyway.
Where it came from — and the tradeoff everyone in the category shares
The Hosted SMS overlay pattern grew out of the US ecosystem's landline problem. Traditional landlines were voice-only, the public wanted to text them, and the industry answered with a carrier-level overlay: a hosting carrier takes SMS routing on the number while the carrier of record keeps voice and ownership. Every provider that offers text-enabling implements the same two essential pieces — an LOA authorizing the SMS overlay, and a carrier-side verification that ownership checks out.
Because the lifecycle rides on carrier verification, no provider can honestly promise instant activation. The two transitions you control (sign, submit) take minutes; the carrier-side check takes carrier time. The honest edge cases are the same everywhere, too — one in-flight order per number, a route lock once the order activates, and a hard inbound-only boundary. Nothing below pretends otherwise.
Three ways to bring a number onto a CPaaS
| Buy a number | Port a number | Host a number | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What comes over | A new number from inventory | Voice + SMS, from your current carrier | SMS routing only |
| Voice service | New — no prior carrier | Migrates to Orbit | Stays with the current carrier |
| Number ownership | Orbit provisions it | Carrier-of-record changes | Carrier-of-record unchanged |
| Paperwork | None (or a regulatory bundle) | LOA + Customer Service Record | LOA authorizing the SMS overlay |
| Best for | New campaigns and tracking numbers | Moving a whole line onto one platform | SMS on a landline, hotline, or voice-locked number |
Choose hosted messaging when the constraint is "voice can't move": a PBX contract, a bundled carrier plan, a country that gates voice portability, a rate center that blocks ports while still allowing SMS hosting, or a landline/toll-free you only need for messaging. Choose the port when you want the number fully consolidated — unified billing, one place to manage termination. A port supersedes a hosted order on the same number, so filing a hosted order on a number you intend to port anyway is wasted paperwork.
How it runs on Devotel Orbit
Orbit treats hosted messaging as the fourth number-attachment model, next to buy, port-in, and port-out — one order object with a deliberate lifecycle, exposed in the dashboard at Numbers → Hosted Messaging and over the Numbers API at /api/v1/numbers/hosted-messaging.
draft → loa_signed → submitted → active
↘ cancelled (from any non-terminal state)
submitted → rejected (carrier refused; rejectionReason explains)The two human transitions are decoupled by design. Recording the LOA signature (draft → loa_signed) never notifies the carrier — you hold the commit until you deliberately submit (loa_signed → submitted). That buffer lets you collect a signature and still revoke the order before the carrier is ever told, the same deliberate break the porting flow gives you. Two other mechanics to plan around:
- One order per number. The hosting carrier accepts a single in-flight order per DID; a second create attempt returns
409. And a hosted order can't be in flight alongside a port on the same number. - Route lock at activation. The inbound route (
webhook,inbox, ormessaging_service) is editable until the order activates, then locks — the carrier-side hosting config and your delivery target stay in lock-step. Changing live routing means a new order, not an in-place edit.
Inbound messages on an active hosted number are ordinary Orbit inbound SMS: same event shape, same webhook receivers, same inbox views, same billing as inbound on any other number in your workspace — the hosting arrangement adds no per-message surcharge.
How to text-enable a number on Devotel Orbit
- Check eligibility. The number class must be landline, toll-free, or mobile, passed in E.164 (
+14155550123, not a national format). Have the LOA signer's full legal name and email ready — they must be authorized on the carrier-of-record account, and the business name has to match the billing record. - Open the order. In the dashboard, Numbers → Hosted Messaging; via API,
POST /api/v1/numbers/hosted-messagingwith the number, voice carrier, number type, business name, and initial inbound route. The order is created indraft. - Sign the LOA. Record the signer name, email, and acknowledgement —
POST .../hosted-messaging/{id}/loa/sign, or Sign LOA in the dashboard. Nothing reaches the carrier yet. - Submit to the carrier.
POST .../hosted-messaging/{id}/submitforwards the signed order; the carrier begins ownership verification. - Poll to active.
GET .../hosted-messaging/{id}(or the dashboard status badge) —activemeans inbound SMS is live and delivering to your route.
The full request and response shapes sit in the hosted messaging walkthrough and the concept model.
Frequently asked questions
Is hosted messaging inbound-only?
Yes. The hosting overlay carries inbound (MO) SMS only. Outbound sending from Orbit runs over its standard wholesale messaging path, which a hosted order never touches — so you can use the same number as your sender ID while replies land via the overlay.
Can voice ever move under a hosted order?
No. Voice stays with the carrier of record by construction — the LOA authorizes SMS routing overlay and nothing more. To move voice + SMS together, run a full port; a port supersedes the hosted arrangement on the same number.
How long does carrier verification take?
Your two transitions (sign, submit) take minutes. The submitted → active span is carrier-side verification time and varies with the voice carrier's response speed — no provider can promise a fixed window on that hop. If an order sits in submitted unusually long, the common cause is a carrier follow-up; check rejectionReason and the LOA signer contact.
What happens if the carrier rejects the order?
The order terminates as rejected with a rejectionReason on the order — most often an LOA mismatch: account-holder name versus the business name on the filing, or a signer not authorized on the carrier-of-record account. Fix the cause and open a fresh order; rejected orders are not retried in place.
What if I later decide to port the number?
Cancel the hosted order before the port completes so the carrier never sees two overlapping requests. Once the port goes active, inbound SMS moves with it, and the hosted order closes out cancelled. Hosting never blocks a future port.
How is inbound usage on a hosted number billed?
Like inbound SMS on any other number in your workspace. The hosting relationship itself adds no per-message surcharge, and the number keeps the inbound throughput characteristics of its class (landline, toll-free, mobile).
The decision in one line
If the number's voice service can't or shouldn't move and you need SMS on it, host it; if you're consolidating the whole line onto Orbit, port it; if either constraint is absent and you just need a messaging number, buy a new one — and don't let customers keep texting into a dead end.