vB Easy Archive - Text Messaging from Italy to US

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Text Messaging from Italy to US
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Posted by: ugastyle

My girlfriend lives in Itlay and she has Vodafone and I live in the US and I have T-Mobile (both GSM). When she tries to text me, her phone says "message failed"... does anyone know how she can successfuly send me SMS?? Thanks!!

Posted by: Ant630

she wont be able to text you.. people with vodafone can only text people with verizon

Posted by: ugastyle

But I thought Vodafone could send to TMobile ...I thought it was just T-mobile that couldnt send to Vodafone

Posted by: Ant630

no because when i had tmo and my bro was in italy i could never receive his text messages.. thats what i think it is... or maybe her phone i just set up weird.. why doesnt she take it to vodafone and ask them?

Posted by: Effendi

It seems quite strange that she reads "message failed", usually the SMS leaves, but never arrives, you pay it, and you receive no error messages.

I think that the problem could be different:
- does she has credit on her prepaid card?
- did she write the number in the correct international form? i.e. +1xxxxxxxxx?

With Voda IT you should send SMS to T-Mobile US, and you can send them to Verizon as well, but that doesn't exclude the other!
Anyway, if that still doesn't work, tell her to buy a TIM or Wind card, it should work, but with Voda you never know...

Posted by: mrcamp

Why don't you text her and have her reply to it?

Posted by: KiwiSurfer

Quote:

Originally posted by Ant630
she wont be able to text you.. people with vodafone can only text people with verizon

The above is incorrect. I'm a customer of Vodafone New Zealand and I have been able to send text messages to AT&T, Alltel and Verizon customers. I asked Vodafone NZ which networks I should be able to text to and they told me (over a year ago) that I should be able to text to any USA phone number except those belonging to Nextel.

Just for your information.

Regards,
James

Posted by: Calavera

Hi,
I am having a similar problem texting a friend in the US ( not sure of the carrier, I ask her in a few hours when they wake up)
I rang Vodafone about it but all they could say was "..am they have tri band networks.... it not our fault..." . Not very helpful.

Is there a definitive list of networks that Vodafone can not text to in the US ? Is there a workaround for this problem ?
I'm dumfounded that this problem exists in the first place.

Thanks,
Cal.

Posted by: KiwiSurfer

Whoever you got at Vodafone was smoking something real good. The offical word from Vodafone New Zealand is that the only network that you can't text to is Nextel. I would assume that it would be the same for Vodafone UK.

You should check if the number in international format. The number must be in the following format for text messaging to work: +1 xxx xxx xxxx.

Just to caraify, does it not work both ways or is it only UK-to-US that fails? If it fails one way and it is on a non-Nextel Carrier, phone Vodafone and complain. Go right up to the manager if you need to. There should not be any problems sending text messages to any US mobiles capable of receiving text messages - provided that it is not Nextel.

Regards,
James

Posted by: Calavera

The poor girl on customer support had never even heard of the problem it her manager that told her there was a "tri-band" issue... this is what your up against. :-/

The problem is two way. I know the number is fine because I can pick up a land line and dial it no problem I can even reach it on Skype.

Here's an idea I had , please feel free to shoot it down I like to eliminate the possibility.

If I try to ring her phone (From my mobile) I get a message something like "this service has been blocked" Vodafone say they haven't blocked it so lets assume it's the American carrier (American accent anyway). Maybe because it is a pre-pay phone the carrier blocks international calls ? sounds a bit crazy . But if they stop international calls then maybe the stop international text's as well ? ... actually no, I have found a flaw in my own argument I used to be able to text her when I was on O2 in Ireland.... Back to the drawing board.

Cal.

Posted by: KiwiSurfer

Quote:

Originally posted by Calavera
The poor girl on customer support had never even heard of the problem it her manager that told her there was a "tri-band" issue... this is what your up against. :-/

Oh, is it really that bad? :-(

Quote:

If I try to ring her phone (From my mobile) I get a message something like "this service has been blocked" Vodafone say they haven't blocked it so lets assume it's the American carrier (American accent anyway). Maybe because it is a pre-pay phone the carrier blocks international calls ? sounds a bit crazy . But if they stop international calls then maybe the stop international text's as well ? ... actually no, I have found a flaw in my own argument I used to be able to text her when I was on O2 in Ireland.... Back to the drawing board.

Perhaps it would be best to ask your friend to contact her/his operator and ask them about this problem. You should also ring Vodafone again and see if you get someone knowledgeable this time.

Last time I had a problem with SMS to the US it was with AT&T. The annoying thing was AT&T blamed Vodafone. Vodafone blamed AT&T. Unfortently it can become a very annoying "Not Our Problem, Blame the Other Carrier" game sometimes. Hopefully one of the carriers will identify a problem on their end and fix it.

If doing the above stuff, you still have not resolved the issue you may have to file a formal complaint with the Vodafone Head Office (or simalar) as sometimes the front-line call centre staff will not be able to solve your problem.

Regards,
James

Posted by: Calavera

KiwiSurfer did you get your Vodafone and AT&T problem fixed?
My friend is on cingular which I think was formally AT&T so maybe it’s the same problem.

Cheers
Cal.

Posted by: KiwiSurfer

Quote:

Originally posted by Calavera
KiwiSurfer did you get your Vodafone and AT&T problem fixed?

Well this particular friend was getting werid calls on his phone so he decided to ask AT&T for a new number. AT&T allocated him a new number in a different area code. SMS to him worked fine ever since the switch to the new area code.

I suspect that perhaps certain area codes have problems receiving SMS from overseas carriers due to a misconfiguration or some other techninical network issue.

Regards,
James