Reliability of Text Messaging into and out of Telecom Network

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tr3v

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Topic # 7769 8-May-2006 20:14

Hi, I am a Telecom mobile telephone account holder and I have noticed an increasing number of messages that are not being received (and those are just the ones I know about). In this instance, my son sent me a message this afternoon from his Vodafone phone, which I have still not received. He initially got into a bit of trouble for this alleged non-communication :-)

I called Telecon and the call centre acknowledged the fault, but would not say when it would be fixed, or how long there had been a known problem. The person advised me to visit a Telecom shop and get my phone "reset". I have an HTC Apache that is happily receiving messages from other Telecom account holders, and has heaps of available memory.

I also called Vodafone. They checked my son's message queue, and could confirm that a message my son sent to my phone this afternoon at 4:00pm had left the Vodafone network, and he has been charged for it! I have yet to see the message.

This is just one of many cases. I do not receive messages from friends in the UK, and my son's messages are often lost. I send messages to my son that are usually received, but often delayed by several hours.

This is very frustrating, and I am not sure what I can do next (apart from go to Vodafone). It does not seem right that my son gets charged for messages that are not delivered. I am glad it was nothing urgent. Obviously, it is very difficult for me to prove which messages I have NOT received though! Is it actually worth my time to have my phone "reset"?

Any suggestions?

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Reply # 35214 8-May-2006 21:12

I am also on Telecom (and have an Apache

), but the only time that I notice delays is when I try and text a Vodafone number on the weekends (with that crazy free texting carry-on) and when a message has been sent to me from a Vodafone number on the weekends. The delay in these circumstances can be several hours (a day or so in some instances) and is so frustrating that I now refuse to text Vodafone people in the weekend!

freitasm

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Reply # 35215 8-May-2006 21:17

One thing is for sure: nothing on your Apache needs "reset".

Telecom and Vodafone use a gateway, and delays can happen. That delays are so long, or messages are lost is a problem. Complain, but "reset" on your phone will not solve their problem.

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tr3v

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Reply # 35216 8-May-2006 21:57

Thanks for the replies. There is absolutely no doubt that messages are being lost. What bothers me is that for every undelivered message I know about, there are probably many other messages that have been sent to me without me ever knowing. I also recall seeing some Telecom advertising for a 'SAFE' texting service for people to register their movements. I'd be better off with a trail of breadcrumbs. That might be a little unfair, as it is probably only for Telecom account holders.

I am wasting my time calling 123 (actually it is a home business account so I will give 156 a call tomorrow as well), and I suspect it will be a waste of time going to the Telecom Shop too, but I will go.

Any other suggestions or avenues for complaints? I managed to get through to Simon Moutter many years ago (~1995) when he was CEO of the local Gas Utility co. after a service delivery problem (which he resolved), but I don't like my chances this time :-)

DKS1DR

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Reply # 35217 8-May-2006 22:04

I don't think that Telecom or Vodafone give a 100% gaurantee that any text sent will arrive at it's intended recipient

tonyhughes

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Reply # 35241 9-May-2006 08:24

DKS1DR: I don't think that Telecom or Vodafone give a 100% gaurantee that any text sent will arrive at it's intended recipient

Thats correct - they dont.

As far as (non) recieved texts go, i doubt you will find anyone to give much of a hoot, as you dont pay to recieve them.

Sending text - if you have a list of date/time/recipient of sent texts that never got to their destination, you should have no trouble getting a credit.

The sheer volume of text messages makes it no surprise that this sort of thing happens. I had one go AWOL last week telecom>telecom but it doesnt bother me very much.

sbiddle

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Reply # 35248 9-May-2006 08:54

DKS1DR: I don't think that Telecom or Vodafone give a 100% gaurantee that any text sent will arrive at it's intended recipient

While Vodafone don't have SMS delivery notifications enabled on their network for customer it is enabled at a network level so Vodafone can see the time a message was delivered and read on another Vodafone mobile.

johnr

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Reply # 35250 9-May-2006 09:00

tr3v is it best effort done and a delay of a few hours is not the best but the SMS has made it. There is nothing in the T&Cs of the two carriers saying that SMS are going to be delivered in 10 - 20 - 45 seconds. The SMS has made it so there is no issue.

In this word nothing is %100 if a message is that important call the person

This is covered in T&C's of both carriers

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Reply # 35257 9-May-2006 09:27

johnr: tr3v is it best effort done and a delay of a few hours is not the best but the SMS has made it. There is nothing in the T&Cs of the two carriers saying that SMS are going to be delivered in 10 - 20 - 45 seconds.

In this word nothing is %100 if a message is that important call the person

While I agree that it's not 100% guaranteed, and if it is something really important then a voice call should be placed, I have to comment that the reliability of SMS services are not even close to what you expected from the old paging service.

I actually laugh when companies propose services with SMS as the data carrier (for device control, etc). Because it's not 100% and delays are possible (and happened before, we all remember Vodafone New Zealand being overloaded and SMS takinkg a couple of days for delivery).

johnr: The SMS has made it so there is no issue.

The SMS might have been sent out of Vodafone or Telecom's networks, but did not arrive on the other handset, so I disagree: the SMS did not "made it".

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tr3v

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Reply # 35260 9-May-2006 10:13

johnr: tr3v is it best effort done and a delay of a few hours is not the best but the SMS has made it. There is nothing in the T&Cs of the two carriers saying that SMS are going to be delivered in 10 - 20 - 45 seconds. The SMS has made it so there is no issue.

I partially agree, but what about non-delivery? Message sent, tracked as being sent out of the source network, but not received at the destination, and nothing to inform the sender (or sending network?) that the message has not been delivered? Is that acceptable? No wonder there are free text messaging periods - even Telecom can't bring themselves to charge for a service that isn't working.

Who do I claim credit from? Answering my own question... It has to be Telecom for non-delivery. Vodafone have done everything they can, and as far as they are concerned, the message has been delivered.

tonyhughes

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Reply # 35261 9-May-2006 10:36

tr3v: Who do I claim credit from? Answering my own question... It has to be Telecom for non-delivery. Vodafone have done everything they can, and as far as they are concerned, the message has been delivered.

Nope. You could only concievably claim credit if you are the sender of the message. You would then claim from your service provider.

No one is going to give you a bean for not -recieving- messages...

SilentOne

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Reply # 35347 9-May-2006 23:48

Prevention is the best method, when no plausible network faults are currently causing problems in can sometimes be a simple problem that people don't turn their cellphones off for weeks at a time. Although no hard evidence as to why, I do know it has to do with which cell site your cell phone "thinks" its closest to or registered on when infact its a little bit off and is being fought for between two towers.

Good example is when you jump on a plane in AKL and fly to ChCh. If you were able to have your phone turned on for the whole flight (wobbly flightpath ingored) and arrived in ChCh and tried to make a call, chances are you'd still be on the Upper North Island (AKL) mobile exchange and you'd get nothing.

Although each exchange is linked in fashion to cell towers its the exchange that can get confused as to where you are and which tower it should route your SMS through.

Morale: I think of it as phone "etiquette" that your phone should be reset at least once every 1-2 days. It doesn't take much and esnures your phone is connecting to the closest cell tower.

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Reply # 35350 10-May-2006 00:07

Glances at my P910 with a uptime of 27 days, 8 hours, 51 minutes and 10 seconds....

I have glanced at Smans network monitoring function and seen it jumping on and off cellsites that seem of lower signal sites as well as 'closer ones' but have only had a few calls dropped and as far as I know - all sms have made it.

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SilentOne

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Reply # 35353 10-May-2006 00:32

Sorry my bad, I needed to be clearer.

I'm not saying its a fix all, but with some phones its a contributing factor

sbiddle

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Reply # 35357 10-May-2006 06:52

SilentOne:
Morale: I think of it as phone "etiquette" that your phone should be reset at least once every 1-2 days. It doesn't take much and esnures your phone is connecting to the closest cell tower.

What a load of rubbish. The network always needs to know where a phone is and a phone always needs to know what cellsite it's connected to. If it doesn't your phone won't be connected to the network (and will tell you that). GSM has a HLR which keeps track of this.

If you flew in a plane and left your phone on it would periodically pick up signals anyway from sites within coverage and register with the HLR, if it has no signal it would simply reregister when it did come back into coverage, ie arriving in Chch.

tr3v

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Reply # 35360 10-May-2006 07:30

SilentOne: Prevention is the best method, when no plausible network faults are currently causing problems in can sometimes be a simple problem that people don't turn their cellphones off for weeks at a time. Although no hard evidence as to why, I do know it has to do with which cell site your cell phone "thinks" its closest to or registered on when infact its a little bit off and is being fought for between two towers.

For the last week I have not moved outside of a 2km radius. As far as I know, there is only one cell covering this area (central New Plymouth). And btw, I have still not received the message sent by my son on Monday afternoon (let alone countless others predating this). So where is it? To my knowledge, I never had this problem before I changed to Telecom from Vodafone earlier this year.
I smell a rat.

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