Text works from USA without a plan!

[Frank_M]

My family drove from Waterloo Ontario to South Carolina and before we left my wife and I got the new USA plans. It took about 10 minutes when we got across the border to activate and then we were connected to T- Mobile. It works great, virtually no difference to our service in Canada.

But...

My son has the regular $39 dollar 20 gig plan and he has been texting back and forth to his girlfriend all week. So he is texting and receiving texts without a US plan.

However...

My daughter with the $15 dollar 250mb plan is not able to text or receive texts.

I am baffled how my son is texting in the car, on the road, without a US plan. 

[Frank_M]

Just found out he is using RCS to his girlfriend and to us, it only works for him using RCS and not regular SMS text.

It has to be RCS on both ends.

[dust2dust]

We might not want to talk too much about all this but I would be curious to hear if your daughters phone can connect to AT&T and on 4G LTE. I suppose also to set her imessage options to send as sms. It might still be a problem real sms texting with her other iphone contacts. Let us know.

Maybe even with your parent phones you could try out AT&T and see if talk, text and data all work. Again, 4G LTE and send as sms.

[Frank_M]

No Apple, google phones, we all have pixels, no hotspots are turned on, he is using the built in Google SMS texting app. There is no internet in the car, trust me there is nothing and he is texting, been working for 4 days now.

[Handy1]

@Frank_M  20GB for $39 perhaps . If there’s a 40GB plan for $39 I missed the boat and want on it 

[Frank_M]

He has a Pixel 6 and I assure you he only has the $39 40gb plan with loyalty plus pre pay discounts.

How he is texting is a mystery, we just logged into his account, it is exactly how I specified.

[Frank_M]

He has no WiFi, no hotspot nothing but is still freely texting and receiving texts. 

When I call his phone it says "The client you are trying to reach is not available" so calls don't work.

It's prepaid service so he cannot be charged, I checked his account, he has no addons.

[dust2dust]

@Chalupa_Batman- I'm no Apple guy. The whole old timey instant messaging thing in imessage drives me nuts. And then that if using it to IM with other Apple phones and don't have internet then it won't work.
So to answer, I would think she should be able to use his hotspot. It's just an internet connection.
But I'd be very curious to hear of any luck with connecting to AT&T on that phone. For real sms texting that is.

[Chalupa_Batman]

@dust2dust your opinion sir? If @Frank_M 's daughter hotspot to his phone and she has an iPhone that uses iMessages, she should be able to send messages back and forth to Canada still if her father has a US traveling on his phone? But she'd have to turn off her Cellular Data? What are your thoughts?

[dust2dust]

@Frank_M- Try connecting the daughters phone to AT&T. But either way she should have been able to receive.

Adding - and make sure the phone is set to 4G LTE.

Adding more - @Chalupa_Batman - There are no surprise charges here.

[Chalupa_Batman]

Is he using your phone as a personal hot spot? If so, that could explain why he's not being charged. However he may wish to check the app at some point to see if he's being charged, do it on WiFi of course. Better NOT to be surprised when he comes back to Canada. 

EDIT: Like @softech mentioned, if he's using an iPhone to message his gf using iMessage, that uses data so he must be using a free WiFi service somewhere or once again, hot spotting off of you and maybe you just don't notice. 🙂 Kids are sneakier that we were back in our days. 

[softech]

@Frank_M 

receive text is free without add-on. Your son, I wonder if he is using Wifi and doing iMessage or RCS and hence is sending and receiving 

your daughter should still be able to receive text but not send  Make sure her phone connected to T-Mobile first