Skip to content
WelcoYour alerts, by text.

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

The email to text gateway shutdown is why many alarm texts went quiet: the carrier address they used has closed. Put your Welco address where that one address was, and the alarm reaches the on-call phone again. AT&T ended txt.att.net on June 17, 2025, and Verizon expects vtext.com to close fully by March 31, 2027.

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

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

Replaces email-to-text from

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

Published:

Genset Panel emails 5551234567@vtext.com; the Verizon 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: [North Plant] 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 night operator: "Welco: [North Plant] Generator 2 run status ALARM at 4:17 AM. Reply STOP to opt out."
  • AT&T stopped email-to-text on June 17, 2025, per AT&T support.
  • Verizon expects to finish closing vtext.com and vzwpix.com by March 31, 2027, per Verizon support.
  • T-Mobile's tmomail.net reportedly stopped in December 2024 with no formal notice.
  • 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, on whatever carrier each person uses.

  • 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

This is what each carrier has said or what has been reported. Official notices are marked. Check the dated sources below before you rely on a gateway that still works. Every domain is in the full gateway address list.

Carrier email-to-text gateway status, read October 5, 2026

AT&T (also Cricket and FirstNet)

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

Verizon (also Visible, Straight Talk and other Verizon-network brands)

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

T-Mobile (also Metro by T-Mobile)

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

US Cellular

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

Sprint

Gateway domain
messaging.sprintpcs.com
Status
Ended
Date
2022
Basis
Reported

Google Fi

Gateway domain
msg.fi.google.com
Status
Working for now, reported
Date
No date announced
Basis
Reported

Boost Mobile

Gateway domain
sms.myboostmobile.com
Status
Working, reported
Date
No date announced
Basis
Reported

Sources: 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); NVRtxt: email-to-text shutdown (read Oct 5, 2026); EmailToTxt: carrier status (read Oct 5, 2026); T-Mobile newsroom: UScellular acquisition closed (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. Welco sends nothing until it's done, which keeps alert numbers clean.

  2. Invite the people who should get alarms

    Email an invite to each person on call. They join with their own mobile 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 5551234567@vtext.com 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 plant supervisor learns the generator alarmed overnight and nobody got a text. Here is how the fix goes once the Welco account is verified.

  1. The night crew asks why no one came

    Generator 2 alarmed at 4:17 AM. The on-call phone never buzzed, and the panel shows no error.

  2. The panel log says the email went out

    Alarm 14 sent to 5551234567@vtext.com: OK

  3. The vtext 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: [North Plant] Generator 2 TEST alarm from panel at 8:04 AM. Reply STOP to opt out.

  5. The night operator confirms from home

    Got it on my phone

  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 night phone: Got it on my phone

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

Pick your carrier

Each page has that carrier's dates, how its failure looks, and the swap in its own words. 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 on AT&T txt.att.net or T-Mobile tmomail.net addresses. Those paths have already stopped, so these alarms reach nobody today.
  • Next: equipment that runs unattended at night, such as pumps, freezers, generators and server rooms.
  • Then: anything on a Verizon vtext.com address. It may still work, but Verizon says some senders lose access early.
  • Last: US Cellular email-to-text, Google Fi and Boost addresses. They were reported working in 2026, with no promise beyond that.

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.

  • Water 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, utility power lost at 6:05 AM. Reply STOP to opt out.
  • Walk-in freezer: Welco: [Freezer 2] Logger above alarm limit, 14 F at 2:30 AM. Reply STOP to opt out.

A phone showing these alert texts: Water 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, utility power lost at 6:05 AM. Reply STOP to opt out."; Walk-in freezer, "Welco: [Freezer 2] Logger above alarm limit, 14 F 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 changes carrier, and again when the carrier closes the gateway.
  • Accepts mail from anyone, so it also carried spam.
  • 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 US or Canada 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 spam. For years, each US 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. The gateways had no sender check, so they carried spam and scam texts. They 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. Reports on T-Mobile say mail was accepted and then dropped with no bounce. 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?

AT&T ended it on June 17, 2025, and that covers Cricket prepaid phones and FirstNet too. T-Mobile's gateway reportedly stopped around December 2024. Verizon is phasing vtext.com out and expects to finish by March 31, 2027. Sprint's ended with its network, while US Cellular, Google Fi and Boost were reported still working in 2026.

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

No. None of the carriers named a replacement email address for texting. 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 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.

Does this affect phones in Canada?

This page tracks US carrier gateways, because those are the dated notices we could source. If your alarms email a Canadian carrier's gateway, test it with a real alarm before you trust it. Welco texts mobile numbers in both the US and Canada.

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