Sending SMS via PHP Codeigniter and email-to-SMS gateway - codeigniter

Question

I am trying to send a text message via the following in PHP Codeigniter.
If I send an email to the same "###########vtext.com" from my gmail client, I receive the text message.
If I use the same code below but substitute my gmail account, I receive the message via email.
However, I cannot seem to trigger a text message sent to me via the code below.
I am thinking it may have something to do with a spam filter somewhere within the phone service.
Any suggestions, or else a free workaround for sending SMS via PHP/Codeigniter? Thanks!
public function textMe()
{
$this->load->library('email');
$this->email->to('###########vtext.com'); [number edited out]
$this->email->from('Notify#test.org','Test');
$this->email->subject("Test Subject");
$this->email->message('Test Message');
$this->email->send();
echo $this->email->print_debugger();
}

Answer 1

Codeigniter helper is useful in this case. Helper function will be available wherever needed. Save below file in Application/Heplers/sendsms_helper.php
/*Start sendsms_helper.php file */
function sendsms($number, $message_body, $return = '0'){
$sender = 'SEDEMO'; // Need to change
$smsGatewayUrl = 'http://springedge.com';
$apikey = '62q3z3hs49xxxxxx'; // Change
$textmessage = urlencode($textmessage);
$api_element = '/api/web/send/';
$api_params = $api_element.'?apikey='.$apikey.'&sender='.$sender.'&to='.$mobileno.
'&message='.$textmessage;
$smsgatewaydata = $smsGatewayUrl.$api_params;
$url = $smsgatewaydata;
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, false);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
$output = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
if(!$output){
$output = file_get_contents($smsgatewaydata);
}
if($return == '1'){
return $output;
}else{
echo "Sent";
}
}
/* * End sendsms_helper.php file */
** Use:**
Load sendsms helper as $this->load->helper('sendsms_helper');
Call sendsms function Ex. sendsms( '919918xxxxxx', 'test message' );