Issue sending international SMS to the Irish EIR network

[Jimjims89]

Hi I would like to report an issue with sending international SMS to the Irish network EIR. My dad lives in Ireland and does not use WhatsApp, and he sends me SMS text messages which i can receive fine. However when i send him a SMS back he doesn’t receive it. He told me he noticed this is happening with some other messages he receives from English phone numbers.

Long story short after a lot of digging into this issue we have found this seems to be happening only when he is sent a international SMS from the O2 and Tesco Mobile network. He rang his own phone network “EIR” and after troubleshooting they told him that it looks like the the sms are getting lost on the way from O2 to EIR and they surmise that there is a problem with “the international SMS routing from O2 to EIR, and to contact O2 as it is under their control”

So i would like to highlight this issue. Many thanks.

[Tracey141068]

Was a solution ever found for this, we are having the same problem to my cousin in Ireland,  she is with eircom.

[pgn]

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@Tracey141068 wrote:

Was a solution ever found for this, we are having the same problem to my cousin in Ireland,  she is with eircom.

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If your cousin has a half-way decent smartphone, @Tracey141068 - as pointed out above - best to skip trying the SMS route, unreliable as it is, and use something like WhatsApp - both parties will need to use that though, then messages, pictures, calls and even video calls will use the data side of the phone (either WiFi or 3G/4G/5G data) to keep you and your cousin connected. No further charge, either - SMS cost money and are not guaranteed to get to the intended recipient. Good luck!

[Tracey141068]

Thanks for the advice but me and my cousin already use WhatsApp,  my mum is 81 and has a basic phone , she can't text eircom. I then tested all our o2 phones and jone of us can text eircom.

I tried my mum on one of my old phones and she got herself stressed out  so she just uses a basic phone so she cant use WhatsApp. 

[madasaf1sh]

@Tracey141068 

It is something to do with how Eir(com) are dealing with the message, as one of my best friends is on Vodafone IE and we have no issues using SMS when the need arises but we tend to use WhatsApp, as its a hell of a lot cheaper....

[Tracey141068]

Yes I know its just between o2 and eircom. My aunt and uncle are with Vodafone ie and we have no problem texting them . I WhatsApp everyone but my mum can't use WhatsApp. 

[Oxonian]

@Tracey141068 

Can you not set your mum up with Skype or the free version of Microsoft Teams ? 

[Tracey141068]

My mum is 81 , no Internet, computer or smart phone , she just wants to send the odd text to her niece.

[Tracey141068]

My cousin is going to pop into the eircom shop , but o2 and eircom are blaming each other.

[madasaf1sh]

@Tracey141068 

I thought they might be blaming each other, and yet neither of them will talk to each other direct... but from past experience it will be down to the recipient network... and unfortunately SMS is not a delivery guaranteed service,.. 

Good Luck with Eircom... (and this is why most corporate customers in Ireland are on Vodafone )

[pgn]

Is your Mum's SIM a PAYG one, perhaps?  Or is it set with a £0 spend-cap?

This was one issue sorted by spend-cap lift, @Tracey141068 

https://community.o2.co.uk/t5/Tech-Support/SMS-not-sending/m-p/1658811/highlight/true#M40246