Fone Forum

I have just come across an interesting site, claiming to forward texts to selected foreign destinations for free.        :o

http://www.freetextsabroad.com/ (http://www.freetextsabroad.com/)        ;)

The selected destinations are shown here (http://www.freetextsabroad.com/destinations/).        ;)

I have not tried it yet, but would be interested to see how it works in practice.

Anyone have any experience of using this service ?        :-\

Yes, this is a service operated by one of my suppliers. They took an idea of mine and have implemented it. However I'm working on a better service which will have greater coverage and more features.

We can sympathise with you Mikael if they pinched your idea.   ???

But if the idea was yours first of all, isn't it somewhat remiss of you not to get your service working first?   :-\

If your superior service was working already, there would be less temptation for others to launch inferior versions I should have thought.  ;)

Well they were going to run a service for me, but they were never able to commit to getting the features I wanted. They just launched it in its most basic form. It is not a problem, as I am hopefully going to get the service I want to run going very soon.

OK sorry Mikael.  I await your service eagerly.  :)

Interesting service. I just tried it to one of the destinations, and it was nice that my ID went through with the message. Also it is fast! However it was not clear from the response that I got whether both parts of the multi-part message went through or not. Does anyone know if multiple messages are supported?

Also the HTML title of the page seems to say "Cheap 0871 calls".  Is this another plan of theirs, or a mistake?

To answer my own question, I just found out that multi-SMS does not work. Each part needs the header number so that their system knows where to send it to. So you are limited to the length of one message minus the space required to write the full international number of the recipient in the body of the text.

I wonder if it would be possible to change the message center number in the phone settings to this number, and send direct? I do not know enough about how SMS works but I presume this will not work, as you still need the base operators message center number for sending to any recipient. Or would there be a way?

Helpful posts: thanks petkow.        :)

hi
I just checked from my t-mobile its working fine and i am not charge even a single pane.
Thanks very much for this

i have tried sending to a new zealand mobile, but no luck. did it with the +xxx and msg. of just a few words. can anyone tell me how long it takes to send. i have the nz mobile on roaming here in the uk and can receive text messages at no cost. but no message is coming through?

It usually only takes a few seconds. At least in my case (to Bahrain) that's what it did!

I take it you are typing +642xxxxxxxx (11 numbers total) and then the message? To be honest, I had my doubts as to whether NZ would really work, as unlike some of the other destinations that it offers, the wholesale SMS rates to NZ are a little on the higher side. I have a few friends there that I was wanting to test on as well. I will report back if it works.

There's no Poland or Germany on the free international text list, so I won't even bother with it, but by all means Mikael let us know once your service is ready and running (and offers these 2 countries). It's quite comic for my friends abroad when I tell them I can call them virtually for free but have to pay to text them  ;D

Regards

dlR

Although there is no Poland on the list I can confirm the text do go through to Polish mobiles.

Regards.

dlR

It often fail to deliver msg if use 0091 instead of +91. U are recommended to use +91 only to deliver the msg promptly

I could not find them (topupsite) offering free phone number as the access number for calling????? If this is so, how can we compare this with someone who provides freephone access number for calling????

I know that this is your first post here MA, but what have "access numbers for calling" to do with sending texts abroad ?        :-\

Members will try to help you with by sharing information with you, but they have to see an intelligible question which they can answer, on the appropriate thread.        ;)

Please do not make posts haphazardly on any thread which is clearly unconnected with what you wish to say or ask.

Thank you.

For anybody interested in the rival text service, topupsite has now moved to http://txtandcalls.com        ;)

Hello all! (http://www.bghelp.co.uk/forums/images/smileys2/bye.gif)

And why would you even try typing 00 when it's explicitly stated to use a +? (http://www.bghelp.co.uk/forums/images/smileys2/heat.gif)


I've never tried sending a multi-SMS actually, as I've always assumed what you've learned by experience - that the part after the first message would not go through as the beginning of each subsequent sub-message would start with something else but the +NuMbEr you're sending the message to.


Well, they moved on 3rd July (or so - that's the date of the SMS I got about that) but today the website hasn't really been working. (http://www.bghelp.co.uk/forums/images/smileys2/sad.gif)
Their latest promotion was for O2 customers but I can't really provide a quote as the website's totally not working.
Could you please post a link to Mikael's website? I read a few references to it but no link whatsoever. I was really let down a couple of months ago when the 'rival text service' removed Bulgaria Mobile from their destinations but couldn't find another service like theirs, and here I read there is indeed another. Thanks in advance! (http://www.bghelp.co.uk/forums/images/smileys2/thank_you2.gif)


Regards,
Pavlin (http://www.bghelp.co.uk/forums/images/smileys2/bye.gif)

Dear Doondie,

You have quoted so many messages in one post. That's great. Unfortunately, I do not know whether Mikael's service http://www.foneforum.co.uk/index.php/topic,1558.45.html could be helpful to you or not as I cannot find the destination or rates list for his "Text-through service for all networks."

I have forgotten to admire you for adhering to the forum rules and the way that you have made your first post by working out all the relevant quotes from the previous posts on the thread and then greeting the forum and requesting the members to help you and thanking them in advance. A very good nature.!!!

The smileys which you have posted here, where have you got them from? Is that from top bar of the message compose option? Or from some where else?

What's that web link next to your emoticons http://www.bghelp.co.uk/forums ?

I haven't understood your explanation of doubling the balances, or ending up with half the balances?

How were you able to send 60 messages in a minute  ??? But in parenthesis you had written that you were able to send 10 - 12 messages per minute; quiet confusing ::) Which ever might be the case both limits are out of my imagination as my Sony Ericsson phone can send about 5 messages / minute.

Could you please provide some clarification about your post?

Thanking you

Regards,
Srikanth.

So many questions, srikanth.nuli... (http://www.bghelp.co.uk/forums/images/smileys2/scare.gif)
I'll try to address all of them briefly.
Thank you for the link - I did come across the thread myself shortly after posting my comment. Yes, unfortunately, my most desired destination - mobiles in Bulgaria - in not among the supported destinations. (http://www.bghelp.co.uk/forums/images/smileys2/sad.gif)
Thank you for the praise - it's just the way I prefer to express myself when commenting on a subject. (http://www.bghelp.co.uk/forums/images/smileys2/yes3.gif)
The emoticons are indeed from another forum I'm a member of - BGHelp. It's the Bulgarian forum in the UK. I thought I might use some in my post (by adding them as images via the 'Insert Image' button from the menu). (http://www.bghelp.co.uk/forums/images/smileys2/smile.gif) If there are any visible links, please do let me know and I'll remove the emoticons, as the only thing I see are the emoticons themselves and nothing extra.
About the balances... It'd be best if I gave an example. If you had 60 credits they would've been enough for 20 minutes (3 credits per minute to Bulgarian phones). They increased their tariff (although it's not the same for each destination) to 6 credits/minute, which meant you'd only have 10 minutes to talk, i.e. you were going to get half of what you could get before the change of rates. By doubling your balance to 120 credits, the minutes you'd get remained the same amount of 20. And this was it actually.
As I said, my phone can send no more than 12 messages per minute but in one minute I can 'ask' it to send more than it actually can for 1 minute. Does it make sense? (http://www.bghelp.co.uk/forums/images/smileys2/pardon.gif) In one minute I request 60 messages to be sent. Since the phone can send only 12, it takes 5 minutes for it to send all messages. I used to send the messages one by one but instead of increasing my speed I decided to increase my productivity. So instead of sending for example 100 messages one by one, I started sending them 10 by 10 for instance. I don't know how your phone works but I think I've found the most efficient (so far) way for mine to top-up my balance. You may have a more suitable way to send more than one message at a time depending on your phone's functionality. (http://www.bghelp.co.uk/forums/images/smileys2/good.gif)

mobaholic, sorry about the off-topic but I've mostly commented on previous posts from this thread. Assuming they were OK, my post should've been OK as well.
Yes, the account balance and being capped stuff is indeed about another service by the same company. I was simply questioning that user's comments about it.
Moreover, you've provided a link to the other guys' website, which is (or rather was, as it has not been working for a couple of days) mainly informing of their international calls service. And that's how I actually found the forum - by googling their new web address after finding out it wasn't working.
I wouldn't have a problem moving (parts of) my posts to other threads, if I knew which they were. I can't possibly go through all other threads.
Once again, I commented on what had already been posted here, and added a request of my own. That's it. You can't expect users to write exclusively about the main topic, as the threads would have just 2-3 comments after the main post. I don't think my 2 posts would hurt anyone (bearing in mind no-one's obliged to read them at all). But at the end of the day, you're the admin. (http://www.bghelp.co.uk/forums/images/smileys2/drinks.gif)

Regards! (http://www.bghelp.co.uk/forums/images/smileys2/bye.gif)

I have made a lot of edits on this thread.        :o

Doondie I have removed the off topic parts of your first post ( but I have kept a copy if you want it. )        ;)

srikanth.nuli, I have merged most of your replies into one, as first requested by delaro.        ;)

One clarification for you Doondie: I made no objection to any of your remarks at all, just to where they were placed.  Please reply to posts from other threads on those threads.  We like to keep each thread self contained as far as possible.  It is a lot easier to ask the member making a reply to do so on the appropriate thread, rather than expecting tens, or hundreds, of readers to have to jump all over the place to see where you had taken quotes from on other threads.        ;)

With that one proviso, welcome to the forum.        :)

Thank you! (http://www.bghelp.co.uk/forums/images/smileys2/drinks.gif)


Boys (and gals), it gives great dissatisfaction to have to be the one announcing that the service, this thread is about, has been discontinued by the provider. (http://www.bghelp.co.uk/forums/images/smileys2/sad.gif) I found out a message I recently sent has never been received, so made an e-mail enquiry and got confirmation. And I thought I might as well check if you were aware and share this with you. (http://www.bghelp.co.uk/forums/images/smileys2/friend.gif)

Thank you very much for sharing this information with us Doondie.

Mobaholic - was looking into the service on the website http://www.txtandcalls.com/ (rival service) the 07 access number provided for orange, is that an Orange Number as well ( so that I can add it as a Magic Number in Orange) :)

To add on, the service on http://textandcalls.com/ is BRILLIANT especially the SHARE option where an O2 number can be added on as well :)

No it cannot be an Orange magic number, because it is not on the Orange network.  It is actually on the network that runs the txtandcalls service.       ;)

Thanks Mobaholic :)

Just noticed on the terms and conditions that one can send a maximum of 200 txts from an O2 number. However there are no access numbers for O2 :(

Unfortunately, you should've said "was brilliant" and "could be added"... :-\



Is it not costly to run your own network? ???



It's never too late to read the T&C. ;D
Take a look a few posts up and you'll see why there are no top-up and access numbers for O2 customers any longer. The rest of the info on their website is simply outdated. It was a very good service indeed. :'(
Anyway, this thread is (or rather was) only about their former international texting facility. ;)

It is a pleasure to see us agreeing tonight Doondie.       :)

Pleasure's all mine. ;D

hi mobaholic
how are you
i visited this website but i am unable to find any text topup number to send text from o2 .....it says you can send 200 Credits per day on 02
how i can send texts from o2 number using this rival service

You can't razian97.  The service stopped working about a week ago I believe.        :'(

It is to their discredit that they haven't updated their website properly yet !        ::)

thanks for reply....

Free International Texts service is not reliable anymore but it still works sometime

regards
PrinceArfan