Help orange texts to New Zealand

bargainaddict

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Friends of ours have recently emigrated to New Zealand. We are receiving their texts on my 02 phone and they are receiving mine. My hubby is on orange and he can receive texts from them, but they are not receiving his. He gets a message saying message sent. They are not receiving texts from her mums orange phone either. orange say if we are getting the message sent message then the problem does not lie with them!

Her mums only option at the moment seems to be to buy a new 02 phone. Just wondering if any clever people out there might have some suggestions to help. thanks in anticipation.

2ax

Do their phones have UK or NZ SIMs? I have heard of some odd compatibility problems with texts to and from New Zealand - some NZ SIMs can't send texts except in response to received ones I think. But I thought more of the problems were to other countries. I'll go and re-read the stuff I've seen before.

I'll send a PM to someone in NZ on another forum to ask him to ask if he could take a look at this, but he may not be able to add much.

bargainaddict

thanks 2ax. We have uk sims and our friends now have NZ sim.

2ax

I've sent the PM, with a link to here.

It occurred to me that I hadn't asked which network they are on.

There are both GSM and CDMA networks there, and it now occurs to me that might be the compatibility issue; maybe that is what my vague memory was about ...

karin

2ax wrote:

I've sent the PM, with a link to here.

It occurred to me that I hadn't asked which network they are on.

There are both GSM and CDMA networks there, and it now occurs to me that might be the compatibility issue; maybe that is what my vague memory was about ...

I have no trouble sending/receiving texts between my orange phone and my daughter's NZ mobile.

tin

Is it pay as you go? I found my orange payg would not send texts at all internationally, but orange would charge me 10p a go for trying. If it is, ring up the balance line, send a text to NZ, then ring it again see what the score is. If they are charging you 10p per undelivered text, then they are in for a rollocking I hope!.

2ax

Answer

There should be no issues to Vodafone NZ on GSM or 3G UMTS

there are issues I believe with the CDMA service from Telecom NZ to many overseas carriers . the other possibility is our CDMA and TDMA network will not recogise the + symbol and often has to be subsituded by something else like 0 or 00

If you would like to do a test I have numbers on our 3 networks ( GSM , CDMA and TDMA

If your friends are on Telecom NZ, perhaps that is a problem ...

But as you are both receiving theirs, and as sending works for you, perhaps your husband is entering the number as +64... when 0064... might work

or perhaps it is only an issue of NZ compatibility with Orange ...

smcicr

how about a free 02 sim - £10 pm top up for 300 texts - might have to get your phone unlocked unless you have an old handset lying about you can use just for this?

bargainaddict

smcicr wrote:

how about a free 02 sim - £10 pm top up for 300 texts - might have to get your phone unlocked unless you have an old handset lying about you can use just for this?

We have thought of that one. Hubby got loads of the 02 sims. Hoping to get the phone unlocked, if not they will have to buy a cheap phone just for the texting.

bargainaddict

2ax wrote:

AnswerIf your friends are on Telecom NZ, perhaps that is a problem ...

But as you are both receiving theirs, and as sending works for you, perhaps your husband is entering the number as +64... when 0064... might work

or perhaps it is only an issue of NZ compatibility with Orange ...

They have tried both +64 and 0064. No joy and it has cost her £6 so far. Hubby is going to try and unlock her phone tomorrow and give her an 02 sim.

2ax

I think you can sign up for an Int'l option on O2 payg so that int'l texts are only 10p - but can't find mention of 10p on the website just at the moment

Sign up before 10 January 2006 and save yourself the one off subscription charge of £4.99+.

http://www.o2.co.uk/productsservices/boltons/international


or if the phone has wap/gprs, you could look at

https://www.smsbug.com

https://www.vgsmail.com

they are cheaper, but may still have an access problem, so only try the 10 free trial on Smsbug before signing up a paid subscription