Sending Text Messages from the U.S. to Europe

May 21, 2005 6:25 PM

Help! Problems sending text messages from the U.S. (T-Mobile) to Spain (Vodafone). I can receive but can't send...

I'm trying to keep in touch with some friends I made in Spain and while I can receive the sms/text messages they send me, they don't receive anything I send them. I called my carrier, T-Mobile, and they said that it must be something on the receivers' network, although I'm not quite sure what that would be. I've tried a variety of different ways of putting in the number (e.g. 011 34(Spain's country code) cell phone number, +34 cell phone number, etc), but none of them work. I googled and saw that a few other people have had this problem, but I haven't been able to find a solution. Any ideas?

posted by buddha9090 to technology (5 comments total)

Weird, I've had no problems texting my brother's Vodafone phone in Ireland . . . . and yes, it's 011+country code+number.

I'm asking the obvious, but could it be an issue of dropping a zero at the front of their number or something?
posted by dublinemma at 6:39 PM on May 21, 2005

Probably best to send the messages to +34 (number). Have you tried calling using the same exact number?
posted by grouse at 12:44 AM on May 22, 2005

Following up on Grouse's suggestion - are you able to reply to a sent text message? Maybe try choosing the "reply" option to a previously sent message rather than creating a new message and trying to send it that way.
posted by lumiere at 2:34 AM on May 22, 2005

Thanks for the advice, but I'm still without luck. I've used the same number in calling and gotten through with no problems. Replying to a received text message appears to go through, but is never received by the other party. I'm at a loss at this point...
posted by buddha9090 at 10:54 AM on May 22, 2005

It may simply be that T-Mobile USA does not support sending SMS to Vodafone Spain. It wasn't until recently that US carriers actually started officially supporting international SMS, and support is still a little spotty.

You might try consulting the T-Mobile forum over at HowardForums. Someone there might be able to give you a more definite answer.
posted by zztzed at 2:05 PM on May 22, 2005