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Email-to-text gateway shutdown in Canada: get your alarm texts back

The email to text gateway shutdown is why many Canadian alarm texts went quiet: the carrier address they used has closed. Bell retired its Text via Email gateway at the end of 2025, and Rogers users reported theirs going quiet back in 2023. Put your Welco address where the old one was, and the alarm reaches the on-call phone again.

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  • One address change per system
  • Same alarm email you send today
  • Any Canadian or US carrier

Replaces email-to-text from

  • Verizon
  • AT&T
  • T-Mobile
  • US Cellular

Published:

Genset Panel emails 4165550123@txt.bell.ca; the Bell gateway replies 250 OK but drops it, so no text arrives. The same alert sent to ops-alarms@welco.ai goes through Welco to the phone. The email reaches Welco and the phone shows: “Welco: [Pumphouse 3] Generator 2 run status ALARM at 4:17 AM. Reply STOP to opt out.”

Animation: an alert email, "Alarm 14: Generator Run Status Is In Alarm", arrives at Welco and becomes one text to the standby operator: "Welco: [Pumphouse 3] Generator 2 run status ALARM at 4:17 AM. Reply STOP to opt out."
  • Bell retired Text via Email (txt.bell.ca, txt.bellmobility.ca) on December 31, 2025, per Bell's end-of-life FAQ. Bell named no replacement.
  • Rogers and Fido email-to-text stopped around June 2023, according to user reports. We found no official Rogers notice.
  • Telus msg.telus.com was still reported working in 2025. Test it before you rely on it.
  • Your system may still say the email was sent. That's why these failures go unseen.

What you get back with one address change

  • Alarm texts on the on-call phone again

    The alarm email your system already writes becomes a short text, whether the phone is on Rogers, Bell, Telus, Freedom or Vidéotron.

  • One address instead of a phone list

    Stop keeping number@carrier lines in every system. One Welco address reaches everyone who joined, and phone changes happen in Welco.

  • You see when a text fails

    A gateway dropped mail without a word. Welco shows each text's delivery and says why one didn't arrive.

  • Nothing new to install

    No modem, no app and no software on the alarm system. You edit one recipient field and send a test.

Carrier email-to-text status in October 2026

Canadian carriers come first. The US rows matter if any of your staff carry US phones or your system still emails a US gateway. Official notices are marked; check the dated sources before you rely on a gateway that still works. Every domain is in the full gateway address list, and alert texts on Canadian networks covers each carrier in more depth.

Carrier email-to-text gateway status, read October 2026

Bell (Canada)

Gateway domain
txt.bell.ca, txt.bellmobility.ca
Status
Ended
Date
December 31, 2025
Basis
Official Bell FAQ

Rogers and Fido (Canada)

Gateway domain
pcs.rogers.com, fido.ca
Status
Stopped, reported
Date
Around June 2023
Basis
User reports, no official notice found

Telus (Canada)

Gateway domain
msg.telus.com
Status
Working, reported
Date
No date announced
Basis
User reports in 2025

AT&T (US, also Cricket and FirstNet)

Gateway domain
txt.att.net, mms.att.net
Status
Ended
Date
June 17, 2025
Basis
Official AT&T notice

Verizon (US, also Visible and Straight Talk)

Gateway domain
vtext.com, vzwpix.com
Status
Phasing out now
Date
Complete by March 31, 2027
Basis
Official Verizon notice

T-Mobile (US, also Metro by T-Mobile)

Gateway domain
tmomail.net
Status
Stopped, reported
Date
Around December 2024
Basis
Reported, no formal notice

US Cellular (US)

Gateway domain
email.uscc.net, mms.uscc.net
Status
Still delivering, reported
Date
No date announced
Basis
Reported; T-Mobile bought the wireless business

Sources: Bell: Text via Email end-of-life FAQ (read Oct 6, 2026); Rogers Community Forums: security system email-to-text not working (read Oct 6, 2026); Public Mobile community: SMS notification via msg.telus.com (read Oct 6, 2026); AT&T support article KM1061254 (read Oct 5, 2026); Verizon support: vtext and vzwpix shutdown (read Oct 5, 2026); SigSpan: T-Mobile email-to-text gateway (read Oct 5, 2026)

How Welco replaces the gateway in 3 steps

Welco turns alert emails from any machine or system into text messages for the right on-call person. You keep the alarm email you already have and change where it goes. The full how-it-works overview has more.

  1. Sign up and verify your business

    Sign up with your work email, book a short intro call and pass the business check. Have your Canadian business number handy. Welco sends nothing until the check is done.

  2. Invite the people who should get alarms

    Email an invite to each person on call. They join with their own cellphone and reply YES to one confirmation text before any alarm reaches them.

  3. Swap the gateway address for your Welco address

    In each system, delete 4165550123@txt.bell.ca or any other carrier address. Put your Welco address in its place and send a test alarm.

Your alarms can reach phones again

Change one address per system. No software, no hardware.

7-day free trial, 15 message creditsCard required for verificationNo charge for 7 daysEmail reminder before billing

Get my alarm texts working againBook a demo

The morning after a silent night

A public works supervisor learns the pumphouse generator ran overnight during a power cut, and nobody got a text. Here is how the fix goes once the Welco account is verified.

  1. The day crew asks why no one came out

    Generator 2 started at 4:17 a.m. when the power dropped. The standby phone never buzzed, and the panel shows no error.

  2. The panel log says the email went out

    Alarm 14 sent to 4165550123@txt.bell.ca: OK

  3. The Bell address comes out, Welco goes in

    The supervisor approves the panel's sending address in Welco, then pastes the Welco address into the one recipient field.

  4. A test alarm lands on the on-call phones

    Welco: [Pumphouse 3] Generator 2 TEST alarm from panel at 8:04 AM. Reply STOP to opt out.

  5. The standby operator confirms from home

    Got it, on Telus

  6. The reply arrives as an email

    Welco emails replies to the alarm's sender, so use a sending address someone reads. A reply acknowledges nothing on the panel.

    Reply from the standby phone: Got it, on Telus

Times are an example. Your business must be verified, and each person must reply YES, before the first live text.

US carrier pages, for staff on US phones

We have dated notices for these US carriers, so each has its own page with the swap in its own words. Bell, Rogers and Telus are covered on this page. Ready to move several systems? Use the migration checklist for alarms.

Which alarms to move first

If you have many systems, don't try to move them all in one sitting. Rank them by what a missed alarm would cost, then work down the list.

  • First: alarms that email a Bell, Rogers or Fido address, or a US address on AT&T txt.att.net or T-Mobile tmomail.net. Those paths have stopped, so these alarms reach nobody today.
  • Next: equipment that runs unattended through a winter night, such as lift stations, boilers, freezers, generators and server rooms.
  • Then: anything on a Telus address, or a Verizon vtext.com address for a US phone. Both may still work, with no promise beyond that.
  • Last: US Cellular email-to-text addresses for staff with US phones. They were reported working in 2026.

Alarms that used to go through a gateway

These are the kinds of alarms that went quiet when the gateways closed. Each one now reads like this on the on-call phone.

  • Sewage lift station: Welco: [Lift Station 4] Wet well HIGH level alarm at 11:42 PM. Reply STOP to opt out.
  • Server room power: Welco: [UPS-Rack A] On battery, hydro power lost at 6:05 AM. Reply STOP to opt out.
  • Walk-in freezer: Welco: [Freezer 2] Logger above alarm limit, -10 C at 2:30 AM. Reply STOP to opt out.

A phone showing these alert texts: Sewage lift station, "Welco: [Lift Station 4] Wet well HIGH level alarm at 11:42 PM. Reply STOP to opt out."; Server room power, "Welco: [UPS-Rack A] On battery, hydro power lost at 6:05 AM. Reply STOP to opt out."; Walk-in freezer, "Welco: [Freezer 2] Logger above alarm limit, -10 C at 2:30 AM. Reply STOP to opt out."

Carrier gateway or Welco

The carrier gateway

  • One number@carrier address per person, typed into every system.
  • Breaks when someone ports their number to another carrier, and again when the carrier closes the gateway.
  • Accepts mail from anyone, which is why Bell called it a smishing channel.
  • Drops a text with no bounce, so the first sign is a missed alarm.

Your Welco address

  • One address per system reaches every person who joined.
  • Works on any Canadian or US mobile carrier, and phone changes happen in Welco.
  • Only systems you approve can start a text.
  • Delivery reports say when a text didn't arrive, and why.

Why is carrier email to text being shut down?

Carriers are closing the gateways because anyone could use them, which made them a route for scam texts. For years, each carrier ran a free gateway. You emailed the phone number at the carrier's domain, and the carrier turned it into a text. It needed no account, so alarm systems used it everywhere.

That same openness is why it is ending. When Bell retired Text via Email, it described the gateway as a smishing channel, meaning a route for phishing by text. In the US, the gateways also don't fit the registration rules carriers now use for business texting, according to NVRtxt's shutdown report.

Why nobody noticed at first

A closed gateway often doesn't reject your email. Rogers users reported security system texts that simply stopped, with nothing sent back. Learn why alarm texts go quiet and how to check.

Who is still on a carrier address

Anyone whose alarm, monitor or logger emails an address built from a phone number. These pages show the swap for each kind of system.

Frequently asked questions

Which carriers have shut down email-to-text?

In Canada, Bell ended Text via Email on December 31, 2025. Rogers and Fido reportedly stopped around June 2023, though Rogers never posted a notice we could find. Telus was still reported working in 2025. In the US, AT&T ended its gateway on June 17, 2025, and Verizon expects to finish by March 31, 2027.

Is there a new carrier address I can switch my alarms to?

No. Bell named no replacement when it retired Text via Email, and no US carrier offered a new address either. Verizon points business senders to its own Enterprise Messaging product instead. For alarm systems, the simplest path is to send the alert email to a service built for alerts, such as your Welco address.

How can my alarm system say sent when no text arrived?

Your system only knows the carrier's mail server took the email. What happens after that is out of its sight. Closed gateways have been reported to accept mail and then drop it with no bounce. A test alarm to a real phone is the only sure check.

Do I need new hardware or software to replace the gateway?

No. Welco works with any system that can send an email, so the alarm email you have today stays as it is. You change the recipient address, and your staff join Welco from an invite and reply YES. Alarms arrive as ordinary texts, so there is no modem, no app and nothing to install.

What does it cost to replace the gateway with Welco?

The gateways were free, and Welco is not. You pay for monthly message credits, with no per-user fees, no hardware and no setup fee, and a short alarm uses one credit. A 7-day free trial with 15 credits lets you prove the new path first. Plans, in US dollars, are on the pricing page.

Does Welco replace every use of the old gateway?

Only the alerts. Welco carries alarms from your systems to your own staff, and each person opts in with their own phone. It sends no marketing and no reminders, and it never texts people outside your team. Anything beyond staff alerts needs a different kind of service.

Is Telus email-to-text safe to keep using?

It was still reported working in 2025, and we found no closing date. But Bell and Rogers both stopped with little warning, and a gateway can fail without telling you. If you keep a Telus address, send a test alarm to a real phone regularly. Welco texts any mobile number in Canada, Telus included.

Move your alarms off the carrier gateways

Sign up, invite your on-call staff and change one address. See plans and pricing first if you like.

Get my alarm texts working againBook a demo

7-day free trial, 15 message creditsCard required for verificationNo charge for 7 daysEmail reminder before billing