Registering mobile phones on my web site

Question

I am using a variety of mobile device clients such as Blackberry, Android, Windows Phone iPhone. At the moment I am focusing on Windows Mobile 6.5 (I know it is dated but I actually have one of these phones to test with).

I want to be able to register the app installed on the device with my web server. Now, I could just let the User create a Username+password combination but I thought It would be cool that the registration/activation process would involve telephone number or/and IMEI being automatically (in code) sent to my server. The benefits of this are obvious, seamless registration and as an added security measure in case the phone was lost/stolen.

Now,I know all about SMS gateways and I guess I would probably have to pay for this service to do what I want - or just let the User enter their telephone number in the login page. I also know that you can send emails to some telephone providers (not all).

Does any one have any knowledge of any free SMS gateways for small business use or pay-as-you-go service or/and clever way to register a telephone number with a web site either via GPRS or SMS?

Additionally, any knowledge of where to look to get the IMEI/UUI of the phone in code? It has to cover different devices so a generic way is a must (which rules out OpenCF).

I appreciate it is highly unlikely that are solutions to this without using a SMS gateway provider but there are some clever people on this site so open to ideas.

Thanks

Answer 1

The IMEI (and phone) number is locked down in the Windows Phone 8 API (for security reasons) so, if you want to make your solution future proof - you are going to have to force the user to find it on their handset and type it in manually. Other platforms (or previous versions of Windows Phone) may not be so strict on this.