Unable to Text Australia

[susanjm]

I'm pretty new to Public Mobile - activated my SIM a week ago yesterday on the $15 Province-wide plan. Everything was working fine - number ported from Telus immediately and I was able to send and receive phone calls and texts within Canada.

On Saturday I decided to test international texting. Sent two messages to my sister in Australia mentioning that it was a test. She replied a while later, we had a bit of a back and forth and then signed off. I subsequently sent her a text on Sunday and and another one on Monday. Turns out she got neither of them and hasn't received any since. I have tried to text her husband as well - but that didn't go through either!

I don't understand why it worked for a while but not afterwards and I'm not sure what to do! This plan is supposed to have unlimited texting. Help! 

[sheytoon]

Yes, agree, but moderators didn't solve it on their own, and the solution doesn't address the root cause.

Personally I learned a lot from the real solution, but I learned nothing from the generic suggestion to contact support.

Anyway, I respect your decision.

[Luddite]

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@darlicious wrote:

@Luddite 

I dunno....I'm almost thinking this is a self solution via the moderator team. It was the tenacity of the OP that solved the issue via telus. All the moderator did was work the switchboard.

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@darlicious @sheytoon  The actual solution to the problem is not helpful to someone with this problem; they must start by contacting moderators. 🤔

[sheytoon]

Normally it's frowned to do that, but in this case it's justified.

[susanjm]

.@sheytoon LOL ... I tried to mark it as a solution but I guess they don't let you mark your own posts! (It actually worked for a while but then it got taken away.)

[sheytoon]

I agree, it's this post that should be marked as solution:

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Using-Your-Service/Unable-to-Text-Australia/m-p/67156...

[darlicious]

@Luddite 

I dunno....I'm almost thinking this is a self solution via the moderator team. It was the tenacity of the OP that solved the issue via telus. All the moderator did was work the switchboard.

[TheGx]

@susanjm :The resolution is definitely due to your escalating your issue and following up on it - if you didn't do this who knows when it'd ever get fixed 🙂

Thank you especially for posting the details of how this all got resolved, that's the good thing about having forums like this, without it no one would know about the hub to hub settings etc that solved everything👍

[susanjm]

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@computergeek541 wrote:

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@susanjm wrote:

.@softech

It wasn't the mods who gave the reason - by the end I was communicating via text with at least one level above them, possibly two. It might even have been someone from TELUS.

The only reason they gave a reason is that I asked for one and invited them to get technical if necessary! Now that I think about it, I frhave no idea if the mods even know what the reason was, but they should. All I got back from them was a message saying "I see your ticket has been closed."

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Did they close your ticket without even telling you or providing any update? What is comes down to is that someone at Telus Data Network Assistance noticed the problem and had it fixed, likely as a reult of one of their customers complaining. 

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They didn't have to tell me. I had already been informed of it by Public Mobile Support with whom I had been in contact via SMS. (One of the mods, after a fair bit of troubleshooting, had escalated it.) I think the mod was basically just checking with me to make sure the that I was satisfied that the issue was resolved. It was Public Mobile Support who also kindly answered my question about what the problem had been. I like to think that the resolution was at least in part thanks to my complaint. 

[computergeek541]

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@susanjm wrote:

.@softech

It wasn't the mods who gave the reason - by the end I was communicating via text with at least one level above them, possibly two. It might even have been someone from TELUS.

The only reason they gave a reason is that I asked for one and invited them to get technical if necessary! Now that I think about it, I have no idea if the mods even know what the reason was, but they should. All I got back from them was a message saying "I see your ticket has been closed."

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Did they close your ticket without even telling you or providing any update? What is comes down to is that someone at Telus Data Network Assistance noticed the problem and had it fixed, likely as a reult of one of their customers complaining. 

[susanjm]

.@softech

It wasn't the mods who gave the reason - by the end I was communicating via text with at least one level above them, possibly two. It might even have been someone from TELUS.

The only reason they gave a reason is that I asked for one and invited them to get technical if necessary! Now that I think about it, I have no idea if the mods even know what the reason was, but they should. All I got back from them was a message saying "I see your ticket has been closed."

[softech]

Yes, I agree they might not be able to post an announcement informing customers  every little changes around Telus.. but Mod themselves should have a KB or so for any current and new events/outage.   Oh well, glad issues is not resolved at least they provided the reason..

[susanjm]

.@computergeek541

It's pretty amazing how badly they handled communication with you. I mean you'd like to think that the information would have been shared with all of them (including support people at Koodo and TELUS!)

It took a few hours for the mod to figure out she needed to escalate it but she finally did. The real challenge in a way was the the time difference. Luckily my stepson (who I don't normally text) was up late their time and stayed up even later to help, not that anything we were trying worked.

Anyway, let's hope this "update" to the SMS routing (we have to hope it's an update) doesn't break communication with some other provider somewhere else in the world.

Susan  

[computergeek541]

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@susanjm wrote:

.@computergeek541

The issue should also be resolved for you because it was a systems issue. Hope it has started working for you too!

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Yes, it is. Thank you.  However, the moderators did not communicate any of this to me. Essentially, your moderator had my issue fixed. 

[susanjm]

.@computergeek541

The issue should also be resolved for you because it was a systems issue. Hope it has started working for you too!

[susanjm]

Shoot ... what happened to the links in people's names? Will they still get a notification that they've been mentioned. Just in case: 

.@villellamcmeans

.@NDesai

.@Triguy

.@darlicious

.@spudster

[computergeek541]

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@susanjm wrote:

So finally my issue has been resolved. The issue was that Telstra in Australia stopped accepting the routing method that TELUS (and therefore Public Mobile) was using. Apparently they were using something called SS7 (Signalling System No. 7). This has now been changed to Hub to Hub, which is presumably more up-to-date; I haven't had a chance to look it up yet. 

It was just an amazing coincidence that it stopped the first day I tried to text Australia with PM. If I hadn't activated right then it still would have happened because I was with TELUS before I changed!

Thanks to everyone who tried to help especially .@villellamcmeans .@NDesai .@Triguy .@darlicious  Hope I haven't missed anyone ...

Susan

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That's good to hear.  I'm getting the complete run-around from the moderators and they keep trying to close my ticket saying that I didn't respond when they actually haven't been repsonding to my messages.

[darlicious]

@susanjm 

Thanks for the update.....happy its been solved for not just you but probably millions of customers across the telus family.

You have no wuckin' furries now....lol!

[susanjm]

So finally my issue has been resolved. The issue was that Telstra in Australia stopped accepting the routing method that TELUS (and therefore Public Mobile) was using. Apparently they were using something called SS7 (Signalling System No. 7). This has now been changed to Hub to Hub, which is presumably more up-to-date; I haven't had a chance to look it up yet. 

It was just an amazing coincidence that it stopped the first day I tried to text Australia with PM. If I hadn't activated right then it still would have happened because I was with TELUS before I changed!

Thanks to everyone who tried to help especially .@villellamcmeans .@NDesai .@Triguy .@darlicious  Hope I haven't missed anyone ...

Susan

[susanjm]

@computergeek541 

Don't know if you've heard from Telstra, or PM support or not. But the issue should now be resolved. Apparently Telstra had started blocking texts that used SS7 messaging, which TELUS was doing and therefore PM. The routing has apparently now been changed to Hub to Hub . Not sure what the difference is as I haven't had a chance to look it up, but all 3 of my Telstra contacts receiving messages from me now.

Sorry I didn't see your message sooner so I could let you know what was going on troubleshooting-wise. 

[computergeek541]

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@susanjm wrote:

I'm pretty new to Public Mobile - activated my SIM a week ago yesterday on the $15 Province-wide plan. Everything was working fine - number ported from Telus immediately and I was able to send and receive phone calls and texts within Canada.

On Saturday I decided to test international texting. Sent two messages to my sister in Australia mentioning that it was a test. She replied a while later, we had a bit of a back and forth and then signed off. I subsequently sent her a text on Sunday and and another one on Monday. Turns out she got neither of them and hasn't received any since. I have tried to text her husband as well - but that didn't go through either!

I don't understand why it worked for a while but not afterwards and I'm not sure what to do! This plan is supposed to have unlimited texting. Help! 

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I can also confirm that something is going on. I can also receive from Australia but not send. In my case, the other carrier is Telstra. I'll try to send if I can find something out.

[gpixel]

@susanjm contact customer support mods. this is most likely a pm network issue

[sheytoon]

@esjliv:

If @susanjm is using +61, she doesn't need 01161.

011 is equivalent to "+" when you are in Canada or US.

[esjliv]

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@susanjm wrote:

.@Triguy

Thanks for your suggestions. I have some questions and comments:

• 011 in front of the number? Is that a peculiarity of Public Mobile? I've been sending international texts for years to many countries and from many countries. Never had to do that before. But I'll try it!
• signal strength is always excellent in our place
• I power down my phone briefly every day. Computers just work better with a regular hard boot in my experience 🙂
• Tried with WiFi off but won't know the result until later (8:30am Sunday there)
• I'll check whether I have something else that might interfering but I don't think so.

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@susanjm 011 the Canada country exit code that you start with.

[susanjm]

My hubby and I (Pixel 5 and Pixel 4XL) turned RCS off ages ago (we were both with Telus at that point) because it wasn't switching to SMS when one of us wasn't on WiFi. Have never turned it back on. It took us an awfully long time to figure out what was going on because we didn't realise that RCS was on!  

And I have turned off WiFi and sent texts to both E and her husband G. But it's Sunday morning there. I will definitely be sure to report back.

[Spudster]

@susanjm 

🤞

Let us know!!!

[darlicious]

@susanjm 

Toggling airplane mode on/off disconnects and then reconnects you to the network giving you a brand new connection. This would normally help when your texts are not recieved or just sit and spin and not send. Maybe your sister needs to perform this action on her end since she is the one not recieving them. You can also try :

1. Rebooting your phone.
2. Clearing your texting app's cache. Settings>>Apps>>Texting app>>Storage>>Clear cache.
3. Toggle airplane mode on/off. (As mentioned.)
4. Last resort....suspend your service via lost/stolen on the plans or usage pages. Log out/in. Resume. Log out. Reboot. Warning performing this action while it may reprovision your sim and can be used to force the system to take a payment while suspended using it with active service will cause your rewards to not apply upon renewal and require you to contact the moderators after renewal to have them apply the rewards manually to your account.

Suggest to your sister to try #1 thru #3 as well.

[susanjm]

I tried texting her husband there too ... it didn't work either. I'm going to get my brother to try her and see if he can get through.

[susanjm]

.@Triguy

Thanks for your suggestions. I have some questions and comments:

• 011 in front of the number? Is that a peculiarity of Public Mobile? I've been sending international texts for years to many countries and from many countries. Never had to do that before. But I'll try it!
• signal strength is always excellent in our place
• I power down my phone briefly every day. Computers just work better with a regular hard boot in my experience 🙂
• Tried with WiFi off but won't know the result until later (8:30am Sunday there)
• I'll check whether I have something else that might interfering but I don't think so.

[TheGx]

@susanjm :Here is link to try turning off RCS Rich Communication Setting as NDesai posted about above:

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Using-Your-Service/RCS-working-for-anyone/m-p/670050 

He has pixel 3 and has similar text issues not getting sent too. Maybe it similar to your problem since your phone a pixel too.

So when you do try texting again, make sure WiFi and RCS is turned off and see if it works and let us know.

[Spudster]

@susanjm 

Try this.

If you know someone nearby who is also with public mobile, have THEM try texting your sister in Australia to see if she receives it.   

If they do, then you'll know it's an issue or setting with your own device/ SIM. 

If they don't, likely a setting on THEIR end.