New Free Texts article discussion

AndrewAfresh

When i send a text, I want to make sure that i'm only charged for 1 message. how many characters is a text message? I'm with Asda Mobile.

Stompa

andrewafresh wrote: »

When i send a text, I want to make sure that i'm only charged for 1 message. how many characters is a text message? I'm with Asda Mobile.

160 characters, see section 9.4 here:

http://www.asda-mobile.com/?node_id=1.7.2

(though as far as I know it's 160 with all providers)

blackpatch

Hi guys,

I have a blackberry 8120, but can't seem to get the vyke or fishtext services to work on my phone. I was wondering if anyone with a blackberry (bb), got these to work on their phone, or know of any other bb compatable service.

Hiyacynth_2

Can someone please advise as I am not really up on the technicalities of networks and texts. I have to make up my mind by tomorrow whether to change over to the Three network for Internet and most important Skype. However, there are times when my son texts me from Australia which costs quite a lot and so do the replies. How can I get FREE International texts on an LG Renoir on the Three Network. If anyone can answer this, please make it simple. Thank you so much.

Wazzo

blackpatch wrote: »

Hi guys,

I have a blackberry 8120, but can't seem to get the vyke or fishtext services to work on my phone. I was wondering if anyone with a blackberry (bb), got these to work on their phone, or know of any other bb compatable service.

Your blackberry settings probably uses a proxy or is restricted to
browsing and email. You need to get standard GPRS settings that allow
full internet access to use fishtext and probably vyke.


In response to Hiyacynth,

It's not readily possible to get free international texts on your mobile phone. If you are both FishText users then you can message each other for free. Because i use FishText, this is the only one i know about, but there may be other similar services like this that requires you to both be a member and in return you get free texts to each other.
On the down side, you may still be charged to receive the text message and be charged data charges by your service provider. But this all depends on what network you are both on.

jezza2412

mushypeaman wrote: »

I have used cbfsms, which sounds like a good deal, and found them to be totally unreliable and frustrating in the extreme.

Texts can take hours to deliver, quite often they've not delivered at all. Also, you'll very often get a message saying the system is overloaded, please try again, and this can go on and on and on and . . . . .

Of course, you can pay for text with them, and all the problems miraculously disappear. Amazing. :exclamati

I use(d) the paid-for "VIP" cbfsms service. When it works it's great, typing texts from a PC keyboard is so much more convenient than on a phone (and much cheaper when you're abroad), but I would say only c90% of my texts sent through VIP cbfsms are successful.

I also use Skype SMS which is slightly more expensive, but slightly more reliable- I would say 95% of texts are delivered (though not always immediately).

However, anything less than 100% is still not good enough in my book, so any important texts I have to send, I still do the long-winded way from my phone...

nowtsquared

I use my Voipstunt a/c to send SMS to people abroad - around 4p a message, the interface is browser based so it will work with 'most anything that has a net connection and it is very reliable.

HTH

Tiger_DJ

Probably worth mentioning that if you have a data plan with your provider, sending e-mails will be as good as free to send internationally. Indeed, countries like Japan ONLY use e-mail to send mobile messages. You can then use any standard free e-mail account like Gmail to send your messages with.

I did this a lot when in Japan, just sending messages from a Gmail account to the keitai (mobile) e-mail address.

iPhone can use Gmail, Blackberry can use Gmail and a number of other smartphones can be used to do the same.

Seems obvious, but something that someone may not have considered.

friedcookie

Hi all

I have used CBFSMS for a few texts, but their terms and conditions are quite annoying, it cannot store people's numbers, it doesnt always send, you can only send 140 characters (they contain adverts). Plus you can't send from a name only a number.

I now use txtlocal.com, you get 10 free credits after a quick registration but doesn't have any of these problems, it is so easy to use too, plus if i forget my phone and leave it at home it stores all my numbers for and responses.

I did have a promotional code on a flyer to get 50 free texts, message me if you want it.

Cheers folks

gk.

It seems like the UK networks are getting wise to Fishtext, smsbug, Vyke et al. subtly altering their charging structure to make its use no longer viable..
Is anyone aware of any remaining data tariffs that are viable for low volume data use?

Orange are changing their charging structure from £3/MB to 60p/day.
Most others I have looked at are using similar tactics.

I then looked at 'Three' who advertise 30p/MB on both contract and 3Pay, with 150MB bundled per 3Pay top up.. Pretty good you might think..
However, having grilled customer service, what they don't publish is that there is a minimum charge of 30p per connection!, and a minimum deduction of 1MB if you're within a bundle! making even their £5 Add On with a fair usage of 1GB/month pretty useless..