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Text messages dilemma. Can receive from England, NOT from Ireland. Can send to both!

Am in Nigeria for a period. My Sim Card for Cell phone is MTN network.

I find I can send text messages to other cell phones in England (+44) and in Ireland (+353), in each case omitting the first zero of the cell phone number. The texts are received (have verified this through email contact)

However when my recipient IN IRELAND clicks Reply and Send, it does NOT reach me; while my recipient in England, when clicking Reply and Send, DOES reach me? As the song says: how could his be?

Last year, here for a while, with a different Sim Card and number there was No problem with either country.

The cellphone I am using is an iPhone 3GS (last year too). I have checked this with a Second Cellphone - same problem. Not the phone, it seems.

Any help appreciated.

Kimputer

If you have tested it this extensively, you should open a ticket at your network provider, giving them all the details your just listed (but for reference, you probably have to include the real phone numbers you're trying).
Sometimes it's a network setting (at their servers), sometimes a replacement SIM card is necessary.

Michael Murphy

ASKER

Not really making much progress on this one. Contacted MTN Customer care and got following responses:
No progress on this. Here are the messages I received from MTN Customer Care and my replies.

1. MTN: 'We would like to inform you that your line 081 etc. is OK. Kindly advice the caller from Ireland to contact their service provider for assistance.

I replied: 'I have carried out further tests contacting friends in Ireland. The result: Phone calls to and from Ireland are working. But Texts sent from Ireland (using same number) are NOT. So the problem is RECEIVING TEXTS from Ireland and they have been sent from different service suppliers'

2. MTN: 'Thank you for the mail.Please be informed that the issue is not on SIM card. Check the message centre number from message settings, delete the number and save +234803000000 again.Then, switch off/on the phone to refresh the line'.

I replied: 'What do you mean when you ask me to 'Check the message centre number from message settings? I am able to find 'message settlings' on my Iphone 3GS. These are the settings. (However I see nothing about 'Number'.)
Messages - Settings: 1. Show Preview (ON) Repeat Alert (ON), Character Count (Off)

My 'Phone Settings' read:
My Number 081........58
Call Forwarding (OFF)
Call Waiting (OFF)
Show My Caller ID (ON)
TTY (OFF)

3. MTN: 'Kindly dial *#5005*7672# to receive your message center number.When you have received it, then dial **5005*7672*SMSCNUMBER#'

I followed this last advice, only to find that now I am not UNABLE to SEND TEXTS, either LOCALLY or OVERSEAS. (before I could send and receive texts locally, and send to overseas)
And yet I can telephone (voice) and receive telephone calls both Locally and Overseas no problem.

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Michael Murphy

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Michael Murphy

ASKER

This solution does work, but it is not the solution I was looking for.