We just found out that text message notices are not going to T-Mobile customers b/c T-Mobile has made a change on how they route and handle SMTP to SMS traffic and that they no longer accept traditional SMTP to SMS traffic. The recommendation from these carriers for anyone experiencing an issue with sending messages to their customer base via SMTP to SMS is to invest in a short code service which will allow their customers to opt-in to the messages. This would be considered an enhancement. A workaround is to put the SMS address in the alternate email field, but that seems unwieldy. Has anyone come up with any other way of dealing with this?
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Honestly, you can consider the standard Polaris method of SMS notifications to be absolutely broken. The major carriers have deprecated email to SMS gateways to the point that Polaris cannot use them. It’s not just T-Mobile, it’s all of them.
You don’t need to look into a shortcode system, because I don’t think Polaris even supports that. What you’ll want to do is look into a third party SMS system like MessageBee or Shoutbomb. There is an SMS notification system available through an additional Vega module, but I don’t know much about it more than “it exists.” 
We use MessageBee in all of the libraries we work with and it’s been fantastic. Pretty easy to set up and, after you get it running, it just kind of keeps on running.
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I agree. Shortly after we started having issues with text notifications we switched to MessageBee and have been very happy ever since. There is of course the added benefit of a simple way to message up and back with customers as well.
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We had trouble with T-Mobile, Sprint, Cricket, AT&T, & Verizon delivering SMTP to SMS so we temporarily converted all of our text notice patrons to Email or Phone and will be rolling out MessageBee week after next. Can recommend them as a vendor. And can also attest that when we had to unceremoniously dump about 21,000 patrons off of text there was minimal uproar as they had already been noticing the problems with text delivery.
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My understanding is there was an additional set of regulations that went into effect after the election “season” was over.
Short codes are typically a high priced option as there are a limited number of short code phone numbers available. All Application to Person (A2P) text sending (shortcode, 10DLC, or 1800) must now follow a lengthy set of compliance regulations: United States: SMS Guidelines | Twilio which typically includes an opt-in requirement. Though I should note that the opt-in can occur via a face-2-face interaction (Would you like to get text notices?) and doesn’t always have to be done via SMS.
I compiled a list alternative methods for SMTP to SMS message sending in an earlier post: Text notifications for Cricket customers--SMS vs. MMS - #2 by wesochuck These would function as a drop in replacement for the current Polaris service. We use MessageBee as others here have mentioned, though I’ve also heard good reports from some using Innovative’s service as well.
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