Key Takeaways
- Scenario 796 is 07:35 exam seating room-swap failover — not exam-window, homework, enrollment, snow-day, PTC, results, late-bus, field-trip, after-school, lunch till, away-fixture, inset 12:40, or sports-rain 07:55.
- A spare that IT racks at 16:00 yesterday and unplugs at 07:00 is not seating-day HA.
- Priced by devices and SMS send volume. You use your own phone and operator SMS credit. Free is 300 SMS lifetime, 1 device. Developer is 25,000 SMS per year.
- Starter is 2 devices; the spare still counts.
- Hold PTA lists until the last room-change notice drains.
- Canary both radios at 07:10, not at the 16:00 health check.
Summary
Scenario 796 is exam seating: room swap at 07:35, a spare already paired, PTA held until hall texts drain.Service pricing is based on device count and total SMS sent through the gateway. You need a working Android phone with a SIM and SMS credit from your mobile operator. Operator message costs are yours—we do not sell carrier SMS balance.
If Hall B flooded and the spare is in a drawer, you did not fail over. You hoped the primary would find the desks.
Not a CodeCanyon “school SMS” pack. Device meters apply — Twilio vs Android SMS gateway.
Key takeaways
- Scenario 796 is 07:35 exam seating room-swap failover — not exam-window, homework, enrollment, snow-day, PTC, results, late-bus, field-trip, after-school, lunch till, away-fixture, inset 12:40, or sports-rain 07:55.
- A spare that IT racks at 16:00 yesterday and unplugs at 07:00 is not seating-day HA.
- Priced by devices and SMS send volume. You use your own phone and operator SMS credit. Free is 300 SMS lifetime, 1 device. Developer is 25,000 SMS per year.
- Starter is 2 devices; the spare still counts.
- Hold PTA lists until the last room-change notice drains.
- Canary both radios at 07:10, not at the 16:00 health check.
Related reading
education SMS, multi-device SMS, how an Android SMS gateway works, GOV.UK exams and testing.
Context
Estates call a hall change at 06:50. Candidates leave the house at 07:40. PTA still wants a raffle CSV.
Free (300 SMS lifetime) is a rehearsal year-group. Developer is 25,000 SMS per year.
Core scenario guidance
07:35 is room + desk row. Spare is live before 07:10. Timezone is the campus, not the MAT HQ.
Seating-swap failover roles
| Role | When | Typical fail |
|---|---|---|
| Room swap / desk row | 07:20–08:20 parent local | Phone in a locked exam office after 07:00 |
| Hot spare | Primary unpaired or submit errors | Unplugged when staff set out desks |
| Parent portal OTP | Transactional, own pool | Dumped onto the seating SIM |
| PTA / merch | Held until last room notice | Released at 07:20 into seating SMS |
Cost and ownership
Priced by devices and SMS send volume. You use your own phone and operator SMS credit. The seating spare is a billed device. Resends burn airtime.
Name a 06:45–09:00 on-call for exam mornings, not only IT weekdays.
Operations
07:10 canary both radios. Abort: hold PTA, keep OTP, skip a second “all candidates” blast. Do not “resend campus.”
Security and compliance
Short bodies. No candidate numbers plus medical flags in one SMS. Authenticate MIS hooks. PTA lists are promotional.
Decision guide
Ship when 07:10 canary is green and the spare is already paired. Delay if phones lock in the exam office after 16:00. If handsets are forbidden, CPaaS for portal OTP.
Checklist
- Primary + seating spare paired overnight.
- 07:10 canary.
- Spare live before 07:20.
- OTP isolated.
- PTA held.
- Airtime before 06:45.
- Battery exemptions both OEMs.
- Campus locale.
- Exam-morning on-call named.
- Device cap includes spare.
Next steps
Review device and SMS volume pricing, device setup, SMS API documentation.
Deep dive: production hardening
Caretakers pulling USB at 06:40 is an outage at 07:35. Watch DLR, not MIS 200s.
Deep dive: scaling and failure modes
Multi-hall exam weeks add devices before inventing a hidden unlimited-handset SKU. Raise OEM ceilings; fair-use remains.
Deep dive: integration discipline
Idempotency on campus_id + exam_date + kind (room|row). MCP is a REST wrapper — live fields in Developer Center.
Priced by devices and SMS send volume. You use your own phone and operator SMS credit.
07:10 seating drill
Canary both radios. Fail the primary; confirm room-swap DLR on the spare. Hold PTA during the wave.
Related product pages
Jump to the live product docs for this topic—not another long-form article.
- multi-device and dual SIM routingCapacity and failover
- OTP and 2FA SMS on AndroidAuthentication flows
- SMS delivery reports (DLR)Delivery status tracking
- SMS API documentationLive endpoint reference
