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. 

[dust2dust]

@hTideGnow- Yes, I know. Why do you say?

[DennyCrane]

Okay so if it's android to iPhone then it's *not* RCS. He's somehow texting her via SMS. So either he bought a roaming add-on and isn't telling you, or he somehow is getting free roaming. Or maybe he answered "yes" to the marketing text to switch to the $50 US plan.

Also the $15 plan is absolutely compatible with US roaming add-ons. 

[hTideGnow]

Hi @dust2dust 

OP's son is connected to AT&T but just not the daughter's

[dust2dust]

We have seen reports of people connecting to AT&T with roaming so it's surprising that you say you can't connect to it. You give it time to try, right? Or does it eventually say it can't connect?
I would not agree with the $15 plan limitation. I can roam with the $15 plan. Heck, the old $10/$13 plan. But that's all before this new system, so maybe.
Again, you mean the roaming plans from here, right? Not a whole other US service from the US?

A part of me almost thinks to leave well enough alone with the sons phone so he can keep in contact with his honey 🙂 .

[Frank_M]

She can't connect to AT&T nor can I or my wife.

My son cant connect to T-Mobile

Here is what I think....

- My Daughters $15 plan does not qualify, won't connect to anything.

- My wife's and my USA plan connect to T-Mobile automatically

- My son on the $39 (Canada) plan automatically connects to AT&T for messaging

My wife and I cannot connect to AT&T because the roaming on the USA plan hooks into T-Mobile, I might get creative and swap sim cards with my son to see what happens.

[dust2dust]

Can you change your daughters phone to connect to AT&T? Does your daughters phone have RCS?

What bubble colours are the texts from your son showing in his girlfriends phone?

From what I found and mentioned, RCS is a different protocol that apparently works via cellular. Maybe another test is to see what it does with no sim in a phone. Maybe it would be like 911. I will be getting around to testing this with my couple phones eventually (not the roaming part).

[hTideGnow]

Hi @Frank_M 

this is just weird.

you can enjoy the free text for now.  But if you like, ask your son to try connect to T-Mobile and see if it has the same freebies, likely not.  Then go back to AT&T and check if it still work.  

There was no roaming on AT&T for sometime, maybe they just add back the roaming service for us and screw up in the beginning.  Don't think this will last.  Enjoy while you can

[Frank_M]

---

@dust2dust wrote:

.Recipients need to support Chat too; otherwise, Chat messages revert to plain old SMS.

---

Just found out my son's girlfriend is on an iPhone in Canada and he is on a Pixel 6 XL here in the USA.

To further complicate this issue, RCS is not supposed to work with Apple.

I still don't understand how he is texting, I assumed his girlfriend had an Android phone but she has an iPhone and is using imessage.

I give up, I cannot explain it other than to assure everyone it is working  with data and wifi shut off on my sons phone. So he is using the calling/texting part of his canadian plan to text canada without a us plan.

Only thing I can say that is different...

My two paid us plans are hooking into T-Mobile and so is my daughters phone and she has no connection with her canadian plan on a Pixel 3.

My son on his Pixel 6 XL has somehow connected to AT&T and he is texting like crazy. I tried to send him a text a number of days ago and it did not go through until we turned on RCS for that message but I am completely stumped now that I know his girlfriend is using iMessage on an iPhone.

Go figure...

[dust2dust]

It's quite remarkable that this is somehow being transmitted. Do you know if the phone has been enabled for volte here yet? Your daughters'?
Did you say you were on the Public Mobile Canada/US roaming plan? If so, do you happen to know anybody in non-Canada/US/US-protectorate countries that you could send a text to (not RCS) to see if it gets through.
Adding - And it also might be interesting to see if it works on T-Mobile on his phone.

Adding more - Found this on this site
https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/what-is-rcs-messaging/

Chat is a protocol

Chat is not a messaging app per se; it’s the friendly name for the RCS protocol or RCS Universal Profile. Chat is available only on two apps: Google’s Messages and Samsung Messages. While this may seem restrictive, most Android-based smartphone manufacturers ship with this default messaging app. There are a few moving parts required for Chat to work as designed. First, carriers must support the protocol. You also need to have a device and messaging app that supports Chat. Recipients need to support Chat too; otherwise, Chat messages revert to plain old SMS.

[Frank_M]

YUp, so you see it works for other people too when they meet specific criteria.

PS. My son's plan upgraded to the $39 plan overnight and he is overjoyed that his texting is still working from the USA with only a Canadian plan.

[fujiyama]

Interesting thread! I've never used RCS but I found this reddit post that might be relevant?

https://www.reddit.com/r/UniversalProfile/comments/xgz0ru/rcs_working_without_data_or_wifi_turned_on... 

[Community_QA_]

@dust2dust 

more than one confirm AT&T works?

if AT&T works, it means Alaska has roaming too?

[Frank_M]

Yes, he gets on that plan at renewal tomorrow

[DennyCrane]

Side note, but I would recommend changing from the $40/15GB plan to the $39/20GB plan. $1 less for 5GB more. 

[dust2dust]

And if he turns off wifi on his phone and try?

[Frank_M]

@dust2dust 

No internet in the car, and it works with all other phones off and it clearly shows no internet connection.

$40 15gb plan with unlimited international texting.

His last bill was $40 + Tax and he renews tomorrow at $39 + tax to the new $39 plan.

It will be interesting to see if it works tomorrow with the $39 plan

[Frank_M]

@DennyCrane 

He has an active subscription with data but data and roaming is turned off.

Since he was receiving texts he thought we were going to be charged for something so he shut data off.

It has to be coming through standard SMS as RCS and I read somewhere that google worked on that standard to receive RCS through SMS somehow. His plan says world wide text but that is only supposed to be from Canada and not from the USA.

Maybe there is an agreement of text in place with AT&T or something. Its actually quite baffling.

[dust2dust]

Did you try turning off wifi and testing? Also, does the car have wifi?

[Frank_M]

@dust2dust 

She is on an older pixel, I tried connecting hers to AT&T manually but no luck. I turned on RCS, also with no luck but she is on the $15 plan which is talk& text 250mb data.

It's been 4 days of free text for my son and at this point I think it might be some sort of bug but I'm pretty tech inclined and I cannot explain this.

[DennyCrane]

RCS needs data (cellular or wifi), and SMS needs cellular. If he's texting over RCS, he has data from somewhere. And if he's texting over SMS he has cell service from somewhere. No way around that.

It seems like you are suggesting that he somehow got a roaming plan without paying for one? I'm not really sure what to say about that, but I can confirm for certain that he needs some sort of connection.

[dust2dust]

Wow. How is this possible? He asks knowing no one here could possibly guess. Very interesting.
But you all can rest easy that there is no such thing as extra charges here.
And what if he turns off wifi altogether can an RCS go through?

So how about the same thing on the daughters phone?

Adding - USA plans? Didn't you say you had the roaming plans from here?

Adding more - on his phone, can he dial *#*#4636#*#* and down in the grey area talking about things being provisioned, what is provisioned?

[Frank_M]

OK, so we turned off all phones in the car, hotspots are impossible, moving at 60km an hour and my boy is texting his girlfriend in Canada from South Carolina.

Checked his public mobile app... seems he is on the $40 plan with the $39 plan kicking in next cycle.

It shows he is connected to AT&T while my wife and I are on USA plans connected to T-Mobile. We have data and everything but we turned off all phones except for my sons and he can still text from the car at moving speeds.

Explain that.... wow!!!

[DennyCrane]

That makes sense that it started working once RCS was turned on. It's not actually using your carriers SMS, RCS is more like WhatsApp.

What's still not making sense to me is that you need some sort of data connection for RCS to work. You must be on wifi if you're don't have cell data. 

[Frank_M]

@ddus 

I just checked his Pixel 6 phone and mobile data is off, roaming is off and his wifi logo in the top bar has an explanation mark on it. It seems he is texting through the voice/text portion of his plan without data.

Since we all use Android phones I cannot answer any questions about Apple/iMessages, I can just say that he can text to anyone that has RCS turned on.

We just confirmed, I called my mom and asked her to turn on RCS for my sons texts and bingo he got through wheras the test message without RCS did not go through.

All this is done with data turned off, my son was paranoid he would be charged for something so everything is off.

[dust2dust]

Yes we had an enthusiastic thread a little earlier, in Alaska even, that got connected and using talk and text on AT&T. A few days ago we had the hint of an AT&T connection. So now it seems pretty definite.

But it's interesting in this case that maybe somehow RCS is getting through. I'd like to know from @Frank_M if his son has mobile data on.

[DennyCrane]

This thread is a bit misleading.

Yes, incoming SMS is free in the US. No US add-on or US plan required.

However, you can only send a text with a US add-on or a US plan. If texting worked without one, it's because it was over iMessage or RCS like @softech mentioned. I can guarantee you if your son tried this between iPhone and Android or vice versa, it wouldn't have worked (because that is guaranteed to require SMS, as iMessage and RCS are not compatible).

[softech]

@Frank_M so, maybe AT&T finslly a roaming partner again. aof you need the data or text, check out the US roaming options 

[hairbag1]

@Frank_M 

this phenomenon has been known to happen... occasionally. You or he won't be charged anything extra for this benefit. Enjoy it while it's available to him. Have daughter manually select AT&T to see if she can text back and forth as well.

[Frank_M]

It shows he is hooked into AT&T and my wife and I are hooked into T-Mobile.

Again he has no internet, he cannot make calls nor surf, no site loads and he cannot text unless the other person also has RCS turned on. It is the standard google messaging app and it works in the car. If he had any sort of plan he could surf or call but nothing like that works. I pay his bill and it is the standard $39 plan which was $40 before.

[dust2dust]

But he still needs an internet connection. Can you tell us what network he's connected to? T-Mobile or AT&T? Does he have mobile data on?