Cell phones forum: international & domestic networks or phones incompatible?

Get more specific and we can attempt to help. Bob is correct about international SMS though, but it still would help to know more.

Which make/model phone are you using? Which cellular carrier/network in the US and Australia? Not enough information for anyone to offer more advice. Is it a prepaid carrier in the US ?? If prepaid, international roaming/calling will not work.

Well, the fundamentals here are as follows:

* carriers/networks--are based in Australia and China (where I temporarily reside).

* sim card-mine is supplied--if I remember correctly--by one of two major carriers here, China Mobile. I have used the same sim card & mobile phone number for around 8 years now

* phones--mine (LG P355 Optimus WE); wife's (LG KP500); stepdaughter's (Samsung Galaxy Nexus i9258): wife & stepdaughter purchased their mobile phones in Australia.

* contracts--I have no contract with a local carrier/network, & my wife has no contract with any Australian carrier/network--contacts me via use of an inexpensive overseas mobile phone dialling card. Stepdaughter has contract with Vodaphone.

I can send & receive sms from stepdaughter (but not able to call her). Prior to purchase of my new mobile phone, was able to send & receive sms from my wife, but now unable to; she is now also unable to call me, but is able to call others overseas. There is some suggestion that my wife has changed her phone in the past.

My local carrier informs me that I have sufficient monies in the card account, and that no technical troubles were registering with my phone & overseas dialling.

Any & all ideas & suggestions welcome.

Thanks.

I may be wrong but it appears you are thinking that there is something you can change as to a setting or such to GET AROUND the barriers and fees the carriers place on such messages.

The short answer is "no." If you want to use email, then that gets around this. There is another notable solution and that is Apple's iPhone message system. Here's a note about that. https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2436585?start=0&tstart=0

So there it is. Some folk get upset about this and will not accept that this is all setup so that fees apply for the service.
Bob

...it sounds somewhat like the provisioning of one or the other lines involved. I don't read anything sinister in his wish to do anything except talk/text, which is pretty standard stuff. The frustrations seem pretty natural if you think about what used to work but no longer does.

Just last month our GPS Cell tracker up an quit in a part of the world as S---t changed the rules. International texting is an area we know is trouble. If you think it's a setting, dive in and offer what to try.
Bob

Sometimes accounts are provisioned in strange ways, at least with contract phones. And then there's the issue of postpaid vs prepaid features being different, and that's even before working with international functionality. But since the ability to call is on the SIM card (authenticating with the China Mobile network you are current using), it seems as though it's not the phone settings, but something on her Vodaphone line that won't accept international calls from your particular prepaid number. Possible, anyway.

If any of your family receives a monthly service bill from an Australian carrier, you might look at the international dialing/SMS features on the account to verify they are all still there. If that information is not included on the statement, call customer service to verify. Basically, since they are using different carriers, your wife & daughter will have to do this respectively to at least start to eliminate reasons why they cannot reach you in certain ways via your China Mobile prepaid service abroad.

Another place you might ask is whirlpool (in Oz)-
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum/114