Enterprise Solutions Office
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City University of Hong Kong
Enterprise Solutions Office

FAQ for CityU SMS (for Department)

What is SMS?

Short Messaging Service is an effective means for asynchronous communication. It has long been used in customer services and peer messaging, either one-to-one (personal) or one-to-many (broadcast). SMS can be one-way as often seen in advertising, or two-ways where recipient can response.

Why CityU SMS?

The centrally-supported CityU SMS service is authentic and helps prevent department recipients from receiving fake SMS purporting to be the university or department.

How will a recipient know an SMS message is from CityU?

CityU SMS messages, sent via the central service, carry the phone numbers "CityU HK" or 8525567xxxx18, where the “xxxx” can be 3705–3730, 3901, 3923, 3931, or 4859. For example, 8525567370518 is a valid caller ID for a CityU SMS message. These numbers have been made know to staff and students.

What are the options available in CityU SMS?

The CityU SMS comes in three options:

  1. CAP SMS

    The central SMS has been added into the CAP (CityU Announcement Portal) to complement the existing CAP announcement. Department constituent staff and students can receive CAP SMS from department if they have provided their SMS phone numbers in AIMS.

  2. SMS Web Service

    If department is maintaining SMS phone list and system for sending SMS, this provides a computer program interface for the departmental SMS system to send messages via the central service.

  3. SMS Account

    If your department is maintaining SMS phone list, this provides an account to access the manual-driven interface provided by the SMS vendor for both sending and receiving SMS messages to/from your correspondent. Department wishes to receive SMS messages from staff, students and external correspondent will need an SMS account since receive of SMS is not provided in CAP SMS and SMS Web Service.

How can a department apply for using CityU SMS?

Department interested to use any of the three options mentioned above can complete the respective form below and return to the Enterprise Solutions Office:

Would I be charged for SMS services?

SMS send in all three options will be charged back to the sender (department) at HK$0.5 per local message, and at HK$2.0 per international (non +852) message.