I'm trying to help a friend send an SMS to a mobile in the US. We have the 10 digit phone number, and I know the US area code is +1, but what else do we need to get the message to go through? So far just +1 and the other 10 digits hasn't work. Is there more that needs to be added, or is my friend just unable to SMS overseas?

get the person in the states to send an sms first then copy that number

alternatively my guess is that there´s an extra or one less digit you´re screwing around, like if you did +610412341234 to sms an aussie number prob won´t work with the 0 in there. also maybe your friend in the states hates you and for this reason doesn´t reply

what if the friend in the states has posted a similar thread in like nygl?

put 0011 at the beginning

you also have to make sure that the 2 phones are compatible to do this. for example your mate is on telstra the phone in the us has to be able to recieve txts from telstra. i know vodafone works but not sure about other phone companies

all you have to do is + then the area/contry code and drop the first digit of their number.

+353 for my number and mine is 087 so +35387.....

Drop first digit from THEIR number. you said it was ten digits, so for example the number is 9876543211.. Area code is +1 so you dial (+1)876543211

Yeah or it may just not work. Dad has a blackberry type thing with Telstra, and hes overseas at the moment and specifically got international roaming on before he left. His phone didnt work in either LA or NY, but as soon as he got to Spain it was fine. Another friend had the same problem, didnt work in the States but as soon as they got to Europe it was fine.

oh yeah im in chile and i can send sms´s to anyone in australia but i only receive replies from a SELECT FEW. we´re talking like 3 from 8 (the three are on optus im pretty sure)

^^ like you said, the others just hate you

lol whoop..

when I was os, it was seriously a fkn pain in the ass to work out all the area codes and country codes, i ended up googling some and fluked finding answers.. good luck you will need it

guys i was trying to send texts to EU and it totally depends on the agreement of ur provider and there provider... optus cant send text to the same number of providers as optus.. and neither sends texts to all providers... its f***in sucky.. but if u only calling a few people just change.. i changed from optus to telstra just so could send texts to NL

put 0011 at the beginning

no. It's definitely the + symbol for SMS, unless your carrier has some wierd setup thing going on (like what telstra had with CDMA for a while - using + didn't work & you had to use 0011).. Also with the USA, if the number starts with a 0 try leaving it on there when you send the sms. Although getting them to SMS you first & copying the number is probably the best way to sort this one out quickly. You're right about the carrier agreements though - If doesn't have any sms/roaming agreements with the O/S carrier, then you're going to be lucky if your SMS' will go through. That said, most mobile providers will give you the standard "we don't guarantee overseas sms" line if you ask. It's a tough one to troubleshoot at the best of times.

Yeah or it may just not work. Dad has a blackberry type thing with Telstra, and hes overseas at the moment and specifically got international roaming on before he left. His phone didnt work in either LA or NY, but as soon as he got to Spain it was fine. Another friend had the same problem, didnt work in the States but as soon as they got to Europe it was fine.

I'd say the cause here was a case of the phones not being Tri-band - ie. unable to use the 1900mhz frequency (which is what the carriers in the US, Chile & Canada amongst others use).. Which is odd, as most of the recent Blackberry handsets are Triband capable...

yeah i + the + thing. had to figure all this out the hard way when stuck in samoa earlier this year.

if you're dialling into aus from OS it's +61 delete the 0 from the mobile number.

0011 is for dialling out for voice calls.

Yeah or it may just not work. Dad has a blackberry type thing with Telstra, and hes overseas at the moment and specifically got international roaming on before he left. His phone didnt work in either LA or NY, but as soon as he got to Spain it was fine. Another friend had the same problem, didnt work in the States but as soon as they got to Europe it was fine.

states is quad band, and their sms sucks. also costs to recieve sms in canada, so im sure the states would be the same.

ive never had an issue however using my mobile in europe or ny / canada

Thanks for the awesome input, guys. We tried the +1 and removing the first digit of the number with no luck. The person trying to send the SMS is on 3, dunno who the yank is with. I had no problems SMSing my relatives in the UK and I'm on 3. I think I had to request foreign messaging though, can't remember ><

I'd say the cause here was a case of the phones not being Tri-band - ie. unable to use the 1900mhz frequency (which is what the carriers in the US, Chile & Canada amongst others use).. Which is odd, as most of the recent Blackberry handsets are Triband capable...

When I said 'Blackberry type thing', hats what I meant, its not an actual blackberry. He spent more and got some new thing called a trio that was meant to be able to search more channels than all the others as it was imperative he have it for work contact while he was os. So I dont know what the issue was. My uncles vodaphone was working fine though.

When calling internationally i've found this site to be awesomely handy.
http://timeanddate.com/worldclock/dialing.html

Put in the number, to and from and whammo you have the complete number.

To the person talking about only certain SMS coming through, it may also have to do with the number rage. The international carrier has to whitelist numbers to allow them in, numbers like 0448* are a new release from ACMA, and not all carriers recognise it. Had a guy who was unable to send SMS to his girlfriend in South Africa and his number was 0448*, changed back to an earlier range (0418*) and worked fine.

that´s pretty interesting, but am i to expect people to change their whole number just to send me sms?

you could just go to three they will help you out

Yeah, speak with your Australian carrier about it. Their international roaming guys can then speak with the overseas carrier and put a request in for the update. No guarantees that it is going to happen, in my earlier example the SA carrier had received a notification from us three months earlier about the 0448* range yet were unwilling to do anything about it.

no experience with the states but this might be interesting for people in the uk or going to the uk

while in england i purchased a prepaid vodaphone
when i came back here i recharged it with and australian topup
and everything changed to australian (call rates, etc)
went back there and charged with an english topup
and everything was fine

didnt have to ring customer support or anything was great