Create and Manage Throttled Broadcasts

Communicate Pro provides Users the ability to send Throttled Broadcasts. These are Broadcasts that have a pre-defined message delivery rate. For example, some customers may want to limit how many SMS messages are delivered per hour if those messages will result in calls to their call center.

Throttling is an option on SMS, MMS, and Template Broadcasts as well as on Multivariate Broadcasts that test for message content. This option is available once you expand the Delivery Options section, as shown:

First, check the box to indicate your desire to Limit message delivery. Then, indicate how many messages per hour you wish to send. Once your Broadcast starts to send messages, this delivery rate cannot be changed.

If you aren't sure how many messages per hour you want to deliver, but you know that you want your Broadcast to end in a certain number of hours, you can have the delivery rate calculated for you.

When using the Calculation feature, you will notice that the screen displays the number of Estimated Recipients. In the example above, there are 999 subscribers in the List selected for the Broadcast. You can enter the number of hours you wish to deliver over and click Calculate. The hourly delivery rate will automatically populate the "Limit message delivery to" field.

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Notes:

• If you wish to throttle the delivery, be sure to check the Limit delivery checkbox.
• Users cannot enter less than one (1) hour or more than 720 hours when using the Calculation feature.
• When using the Calculation feature, the throttle rate will be rounded up to the nearest whole number.
• Once the Broadcast starts to send messages, the delivery rate cannot be changed.

Even though the delivery rate cannot be changed once a Broadcast has begun, Users are able to pause, stop, or restart message delivery. These actions are performed from either the Broadcasts > Queue Control page or the Broadcasts > Active Throttled Summary page.

From the Queue Control page:

Users will need to select a specific Broadcast before being able to pause, stop or restart message delivery.

Once the Broadcast is selected, Users will see additional details and have the ability to pause, stop, or restart.

The play button icon will not be clickable when the Broadcast is actively sending. The play button icon will become clickable for Broadcasts that have been paused, and clicking it resume or restart the Broadcast.

The pause button icon will only be clickable when the Broadcast is actively sending. The pause button icon will pause the Broadcast. A user will have to manually restart the Broadcast in order for it to start sending messages again.

The stop button icon will always be clickable. Using the stop button icon will effectively cancel the Broadcast. Canceled Broadcasts cannot be restarted; a new Broadcast would need to be created.

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Note:

Regular (non-Throttled) Broadcasts cannot be paused, stopped or restarted via the Queue Control page (even though Users will see these options presented on the page). Messages associated with Regular (non-Throttled) Broadcasts are handed from Communicate Pro to our message routers immediately. If you've mistakenly initiated a Broadcast and you wish to stop message delivery, you will need to contact our Network Operations Center (NOC) who will assist in terminating any messages that have not yet been sent from Kaleyra to Carriers.

If the Broadcast is complete, Users can use the Queue Control page to view historical details regarding the number of messages sent, delivered, and failed. The queued status may have values if a Broadcast was canceled.

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Note:

• The historical details are available for all Broadcast types (Regular and Throttled).
• Messages will be considered Sent if we do not receive a Delivery Receipt.
• Messages will be considered Delivered when we receive a Delivery Receipt confirming delivery success.
• Messages will be considered Failed when we receive a Delivery Receipt indicating delivery failure.
• The In Process and Queued values should indicate 0 for completed Broadcasts, but may show values if the Broadcast was cancelled.

For customers that have many Throttled Broadcasts running at once, the Active Throttled Summary page will provide an overview of all those Broadcasts.

Select the Broadcasts > Active Throttled Summary menu option:

From this view, Users can see all of their Active Throttled Broadcasts:

Users can quickly see the status of their Active Broadcasts. Using the play, pause and stop icons associated with each Broadcast, Users can quickly take action as needed without leaving this summary page.

Additionally, buttons to Pause All or Resume All are available.

Clicking Pause All will pause all Broadcasts that have an Active status. Users will have to confirm that action:

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Note:

Since the Active Throttled Summary page is not automatically refreshed, Users will be told approximately how many Broadcasts are being impacted. If additional Broadcasts had been started while the Active Throttled Summary page was showing stale data, all Active Broadcasts would be paused (not just those that were displayed on the page at the time the button was clicked).

A confirmation page will be displayed so Users know how many Broadcasts were impacted:

Once paused, the User will see the Paused status displayed on the Active Throttled Summary page:

Clicking Resume All will restart all Broadcasts that have a Paused status. Users will have to confirm that action:

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Note:

Since the Active Throttled Summary page is not automatically refreshed, Users will be told approximately how many Broadcasts are being impacted. If additional Broadcasts had been paused while the Active Throttled Summary page was showing stale data, all Paused Broadcasts would be restarted (not just those that were displayed on the page at the time the button was clicked).

Once resumed, those Broadcasts will show with an Active status again.

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Note:

It is possible you will see a "resuming" status in some cases. Simply refresh (using the refresh button in the upper left) to see the status update to Active.

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Note:

• Active Throttled Broadcasts are those Broadcasts that are actively sending messages or those that are currently paused.
• The Summary view will not be automatically refreshed. Users must click the Refresh button located in the top left of the page to refresh the results.
• Users can restart, pause or cancel Broadcasts from this page, or can access the specific Queue Control details for the Broadcast by clicking the Broadcast Name.