china mobile and international sms

[hnsn82]

hi folks,

i got a china mobile number (138xxxxxxxx) and having problem with some international short text messages. for example, i can send an sms to russia but my friend's sms can't seems to reach me. I tried to send to 2 different numbers, both can receive but I got no reply from them (i think they have same mobile operator).

another observation, also a china mobile number (139xxxxxxxx) can't receive sms from an australian number.

beside that other international sms seems to be working fine, except the occasional delays of sending and receiving.

i did try to call their 1860 customer service center and i was told that problem wasn't at china mobile's end it must be the sending party that's at fault.

is there anything something preventing those number to receive sms from the mentioned country? oh yeah i forgot to mention that both of the number is pay as you go number.

thanks in advance

[roddy]

beside that other international sms seems to be working fine, except the occasional delays of sending and receiving.

You mean you can get other international sms ok, or they can send them ok to other phones / countries?

[hnsn82]

the 138 number seems to be ok for send and receive to these countries; australia, singapore, indonesia, thailand, usa, and of course local mainland china.

any ideas what might gone wrong?

[liuzhou]

i did try to call their 1860 customer service center and i was told that problem wasn't at china mobile's end it must be the sending party that's at fault.

I had exactly the same problem and response. I thought China Mobile were just passing the buck, but it turned out to be true. The problem was at the English end.

[venture160]

so if I wanted to use my 138 cellphone number to send texts to a US number, what do I have to dial to besides my friends cell phone number???

[imron]

If you're in China, the formula is basically 00 + country code - leading zero + phone number.

For example, when I send a text message to my sister's mobile phone in Australia (country code 61), her phone number is 0404 XXXXXX, so the number I send a text message to is: 00 61 404 XXXXXX

[skylee]

And how should I send an SMS to a china mobile number from a Hong Kong mobile number? I use +86 136 XXXXXXXX but it doesn't seem to work. Do I have to add an area code?

[imron]

I'm not sure exactly, but I also have a friend in Hong Kong who I occasionally swap text messages with, so it can be done. In Hong Kong what number do you have to prefix the phone number with if you want to dial internationally? In China it's 00, and I'd imagine you'd have to put the "from Hong Kong dial-out" number first and then 86 13X XXXX XXXX e.g. if the number is 00 then 008613XXXXXXXXX. The other option would be to get the person in China to send you a message. Then you'd see their number in your phone and you could just reply to that. Plus you'd be able to see the format that the number should be and you could then adapt that to any number you want.

[skylee]

thanks, imron. I usually dial 001 for IDD calls. But I've been told that all I need to do is dial "+" for international access, no matter where I am (and it is all right for voice calls).

[hnsn82]

I had exactly the same problem and response. I thought China Mobile were just passing the buck, but it turned out to be true. The problem was at the English end.

So what was the problem and how did you resolve it? We might have the same problem..

Thanks

[flameproof]

I have a CM 1364 xxx prepaid card. I can receive SMS, but not send them. Is there a trick or does it flatly not work?

[hnsn82]

flameproof,

hum that's weird.. can you send to local number ? i mean not international sms , but same china mobile or china unicom number??

[Adrian]

I'd like to get a China Mobile sim card which will allow me to send and receive SMS domestically and international. By that I mean, send to my friends in China and friends overseas while I am actually in China myself.

Which one do I choose? How much does it cost?

In Australia you can just easily get any sim card from any company and it lets you do this without a problem.

[hnsn82]

Because i'm having this problem, i asked couple sim card seller about what is the difference that between the china mobile number prefixes. as far as i know they have 134, 137, 138, 139, 159 (new?).

In regard to sending and receiving sms. they all replied that there's no difference. and also mentioned that it shouldn't matter whether you're on pay as you go or subscription.

i recently travel to australia, and wasn't able to send sms for my red sim ( vodafone ) to china mobile 139xxxxxxx. however my friend, also vodafone, can send and receive sms to my 138xxxxxxx number. i'm really at lost why this could happen.

as for which one to choose, most seller said china mobile's sim is better than china unicom's. i dont know whether this is true or not. but most of my friend uses china mobile and they seem to be ok.

the sims usually cost 55 yuan with 50 yuan credit inside. usually the price go higher is the number is pretty ( good ) like the contains 8's or 9's.

hope this helps.

[imron]

flameproof> If you can't send a domestic SMS, then the problem is probably that you haven't configured the phone's message centre number. There should be an option to set this in either your phone settings, or in your message settings. For example, on my phone, if I go to Messages->Message Settings->Set 1->Message Centre Number, then I can set the number for the message centre. You need to set this number because an SMS isn't sent directly to the other person's phone. It's first sent to a message centre where it waits until it knows the message can be sent to the other person's phone (i.e. it waits until their phone is turned on, and in range etc.).

You should be able to go to the nearest service counter of your network provider, and ask them what number you should use.

If you can send a domestic SMS, and the problem only occurs with an international SMS, then the problem is either 1) you haven't input the number correctly (see my previous post for the formula to use) or 2) you are trying to send it to a country that doesn't allow it. For example I have friends in Finland that can't receive or send an SMS from/to China, my friends in England can receive them but can't reply, but friends/family from Australia have no problem sending or receiving them.

Adrian> As far as I know, all China Mobile SIM cards will allow you to send an international SMS. The problem is that some countries don't seem to support international SMS sending and so sending to those countries obviously doesn't work. You should have no problem if you're sending a message to Australia though. As for prices it's not expensive. All phones are pretty much pay as you go. There are no contracts or anything like there is in Australia. You just rock up to a service counter, buy a SIM card (the less 8's and the more 4's, the cheaper the number will be) and away you go.

[hnsn82]

For example I have friends in Finland that can't receive or send an SMS from/to China' date=' my friends in England can receive them but can't reply,.....

[/quote']

it never get resolved? earlier liuzhou wrote,

I had exactly the same problem and response. I thought China Mobile were just passing the buck, but it turned out to be true. The problem was at the English end.

maybe liuzhou could give us pointer, what was wrong at the english end?

i really wanted to know what is the reasoning behind this "weird" behaviour...

imron, do you think a country/mobile operator is blocking communication from other country/mobile operator? to me it makes more sense if the blocking is done at the mobile operators level but not country level. i mean why would goverment care about sms. mobile operators might not reach a good agreement (roaming for example) and decided to block each other sms. (even this seems illogical to me)

hope this will get solved.

[flameproof]

imron

You got me thinking! I will try that out next time in China (which will be Monday). If that does not work I will go to one of the zillion phone shops.

aahh, what is SMS in Mandarin?

[imron]

it never get resolved?

It was never something that was so important to get resolved, especially given there are other convenient ways to communicate internationally e.g. email.

Anyway, I don't think it's so much that countries are blocking each other. I would put it down to 1) that some countries aren't quite organised enough yet with their systems and getting them hooked up and connected to the global network, and 2) they don't want to carry traffic on their network that they aren't getting paid for. But that's all pure speculation on my part, so it might be for some completely other reason.

flameproof> SMS in Mandarin is 短信. Usually you would use it in conjunction with the verb 发, i.e. 发短信. Also, in case you are interested, according to the Chinese menu of my phone, "message centre number" is: 信息中心号码

[HashiriKata]

Hi,

What is the Chinese for "pay as you go" ? Babel Fish translation gave "薪水如同您去" but this is only for a laugh . And also, how do you say "SIM card" in Chinese?

[skylee]

What is the Chinese for "pay as you go" ?

This webpage (click the top right corner to switch between Chinese/English) uses 按次收費. Same in this webpage.

As to SIM card, the above website calls it 聰明卡 (our HKID using similar chip is calld 智能身份證). But for a prepaid rechargeable SIM card, it is called 儲值(電話)卡.