Interesting, just discovered that I can send a text to someone who has sent me one at my new number but not to someone who hasn't. CS hasn't been too helpful yet. Just asked me to check my APN settings and restart.
My experience mirrors Isamorph's thought-- sometimes texting setup lags behind other parts of the activation process.
Re: text and APN. I struggled for a while with a line/phone that could not text reliably, and did a fair amount of reading about this issue. "Text doesn't work" is a more complicated question that needs more complete info to address, if waiting for 48 hours or so doesn't fix it.
TL:DR: wait 48 hours for the system to catch up with your new line before you struggle with this!
SMS texting does not rely on the APN settings. (True old-school sms, not iMessage or RCS, or other rich chat services.)
MMS (group text, picture texts, etc.) does rely on APN settings, and rich text services likely do. (And likely iMessage, but I don't have an iPhone, so I kind of glossed over learning about that.
This is what I think I learned:
SMS texting goes over the voice network, but is routed through a gateway number kind of like a forwarding service. (Essentially, all texts via the provider get dumped into one 'central operator' system, sorted & forwarded to individual users.)
Think of it like the Post Office:
Your outgoing mail is picked up by a private firm (your provider), and then delivered to the Post Office sorting station.
The Post Office receives your mail, sorts it, and routes it to the intended recipient.
Your incoming mail (incoming SMS) won't get to you until the Post Office has your location registered in their system. (And that's why texting sometimes lags behind voice and data functions.) For incoming sms, there is no 'fix' at the individual user level other than waiting for your 'change of address form' to be processed. If it doesn't get processed correctly, you can ask for assistance from your provider to have the Post Office correct the missing info in their system.
In most cases, waiting will allow the registration to complete and incoming sms to start working..
For outgoing SMS, add 2 layers of complication: rather than a single 'pickup carrier' for sms text, they're gathered by individual providers before being sent on to the general sorting/forwarding service. The SMS gateway (I'm likely using that term wrong-- I think it actually has a different name) is supposed to be auto-updated when you set up a new line or service, but the setting is hidden and not part of the APN. If it doesn't set up correctly automatically, you may be able to address this at the end-user level. Many phones can access this hidden menu, and at least some can update or change the gateway setting manually if it fails to set up properly on line activation. (It takes research to find the correct gateway # for your provider.)
And, on Verizon, there is a difference between how CDMA-provisioned and CDMA-less provisioning works for SMS text. This part is a little murkier to me: but my murky understanding is that if you are using a CDMA-less phone, the SIM needs to be provisioned for CDMA-less operation in order for outbound SMS to work reliably. As we get closer to Verizon's cut-off date for CDMA, it seems that all SIMs must be provisioned for CDMA-less: but this apparently doesn't always happen reliably as an update to existing SIMs without Verizon intervention-- even with a new SIM activation. And requesting an update to CDMA-less provisioning is less reliable than one might hope on MVNOs, and particularly if the MVNO you're using doesn't really provide the backbone service. (With FreeMii, the update request would have to be routed to the other provider that is actually providing the Verizon service, with the request then forwarded to Verizon....)
Here is my texting story. Not directly related, but kind of interesting. I have a Palm PVR-100 which is a "companion" device through VZW numbershare feature. If you're not familiar, the "numbershare" lets you get calls and texts to the Palm and your main phone simultaneously (sp?). I had deactivted the Palm after I retired. A little reported feature of the little phone is that it is actually unlocked for GSM.
When I heard about FreeMii, I decided to give it a try, and activated a Blue SIM on the Palm. Everything worked great, except that the Blue AT&T signal is very weak at my house. The interesting thing is that even though the Palm has a new SIM on a different network, texts to my VZW number continue to show up on both my VZW phone and the Palm.
This is actually great for me, but weird.
FWIW
If you ever decide to part with that Palm, you'll want to find a way to break that association so the new owner doesn't continue to receive your texts! :ohmy:
And thanks for sharing the info about that version of the Palm being GSM unlocked. I'd like to have a tiny phone, but they were still a little pricey for me (used) the last time I looked.
If you ever decide to part with that Palm, you'll want to find a way to break that association so the new owner doesn't continue to receive your texts! :ohmy:
Yeah, for sure.
And thanks for sharing the info about that version of the Palm being GSM unlocked. I'd like to have a tiny phone, but they were still a little pricey for me (used) the last time I looked.
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I picked it up on eBay for $80.00. It works great, only drawback is no NFC.
Just checking, is the Red network still sketchy? Picked up a new phone and was going to try again, if there's been any improvement.
FYI, as an update. My texting is working and everything seems to be fine. Never did get ported but so far I am happy with the service if not so much with customer services responses and capabilities. I ended up swapping the SIM to my second sim slot and right after that I was able to send a text. I then switched the SIM back and it still worked. I didn't check if a text would send before swapping the SIM so that my have just been coincidence. Perhaps it was just network settings finally catching up.
No changes yet. Red still throttled to 5/2 and no wifi calling. I'm only at 6.27gb used so haven't experienced the 9gb cap yet. But I assume that isn't fixed yet either.
I'm rocking Blue on my new phone though.
Still, took a trip to Michigan's Upper Peninsula this weekend and took both phones. I think AT&T had slightly better coverage, but there were areas where Verizon worked but Blue didn't.
I can't see myself carrying 2 phones forever, but the comparison is still in the "fun" stage for now.
Keep in mind that if you are using a dual sim device, they have a different IMEI for each slot. FreeMii might see that as swapping the sim to another device other than the one it was initially set up on.
I'm still waiting on my refund for the red network. My blue network is still working fine.
I was reading back and was wondering about that. I don't recall anyone reporting a successful refund request yet. We've "tested" nearly everything but their refund guarantee. It's been 9 days, any action yet?
Well, yes and no. I filed for the refund on 10/13. They told me it would be back in my account in 3 days or less. It wasn't. on 10/20, I involved my financial institution. I now have the credit back in my account and PayPal is going after FreeMii. I get the feeling that they put the 100 day refund thing out there but they don't really want to honor it.
I see they are advertising on FaceBook again....Haven't had a reply from CS in 2 days, though.
Apparently Monika was away for a few days.
Yeah, wasn't 1/2 hour after I posted that she got back to me.. Now I feel guilty.
The following disclosure statements from FreeMii appear to be a modification to what was on the site before, if I'm not mistaken. So, simply put, in effect this is a clarification on "unlimited" data restrictions. But one wonders what "pace of consumption" means exactly.?
Also, interesting that this FreeMii thread has had 6,000+ views already.
'"Unlimited Data, Talk, + Text" refers to those memberships offered by FreeMii through FreeMii supported networks in which there is no preset cap or limit for cellular data use, voice/talk airtime, and SMS/MMS messaging as a service. Generally, during periods of high volume traffic FreeMii supported networks may deprioritize your connectivity after your consumption of approximately 20GB~22GB of data. FreeMii also reserves the right to monitor, suspend, terminate, or otherwise alter the availability of data and wireless connectivity for those members who excessively consume or abuse consumption of wireless services. The use of the term “Unlimited” in our site or other digital collateral or marketing materials shall NOT be construed or interpreted as Unreasonable use. All members are subject excessive consumption parameters, which make considerations including but not limited to: (1)the national average of cellular consumption for voice minutes, sms and mms messaging, and data; (2) the member’s pace of consumption; (3) the average consumption of the FreeMii community; and (4) the respective carrier and/or network provider policies.'
I was going to ask the CS team if I could use Pink network on this phone: https://www.thelightphone.com/, but their website is down lol
They really need to get their ish together... this is such a great concept!
Doesn't inspire confidence. Website still down.
They're back up. Surprised, didn't expect them to be back up before the beginning of the week.
They keep making changes whenever they want lol. Maybe by pace of consumption they mean 9 Gb in one week? Although I don’t understand why they don’t just list the plans with their actual high speed data allotment. 9 GB Verizon, 22 Gb AT&T. Idk about pink but probably same thing.
What are the policies of membership?
Completion of membership purchase and the activation is required. Also, our offer for unlimited data, talk and text does not mean unreasonable consumption. Excessive consumption can include high average daily consumption, high average monthly consumption, consumption far in excess of the national average (Currently 5-7GB/month, Statistia.com) See Restrictions and Disclosures for details.
FreeMii | Get Nationwide Wireless. Every Month Free.
Questions and Answers section
No-Thing to Worry About
No data caps
Unlimited truly means unlimited. Browse, connect, and stream on the nation's best networks.
No data overages
You'll never be charged for data overages and you'll never run out of data.
https://freemii.com/membership
So many different claims and statements. The only thing we are sure of is FreeMii isn't offering unlimited data. Which is a shame, because it's a claim we all wanted to be true. For me, it's still a good value. But it would be GREATLY appreciated to actually know what the limits are.