Three: Duplicate charges for texts while outside UK

wriggly

I was just reviewing my 3 mobile bills for the last year, and notice that there are several instances where I appear to have sent 2 or 3 texts to the same number within 60 seconds while overseas.

I thought this was unusual, as I typically limit my usage while overseas. Checking my messaging history on the phone, it appears that I only sent one message and these multiple texts are actually duplicate charges.

Has anyone else seen this?

Hazzanet

Long texts that were split into two by the phone?

wriggly

Just counted one of the shorter messages - it was 81 characters, but charged twice. Interestingly, the messages that were charged 3 times do appear to be the longer ones (but still less than 160 characters).

wriggly

Just discovered it is possible for texts to allow only 70 characters:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GSM_03.38#UCS-2_Encoding

Although my texts are English with standard characters, maybe some overseas networks always convert to UCS-2. I may try to figure out if it is particular countries.

wriggly

OK, in the Messaging settings on the phone, there is an option Character encoding which can be "Full support" or "Reduced support". I guess this may be the setting which is causing my phone to always send UCS-2.

It's pretty stupid how they provide all these options, and then never give you documentation to explain what they mean, and the implications of choosing any particular option.