Send 1 message to many phone numbers in one instruction

Yes, I very much suspect that is the case.

Take a look at AT+CMMS for sending messages in quick succession…

A GSM mobile is not a great platform for doing this - you would probably be far better doing it via a Bulk SMS service.

If the message really has to be originated by a mobile device, then consider having it notify a “server”, and then the “server” distributes the messages…