Solved

SMS Text to BT landline

  • 11 November 2018
  • 59 replies
  • 5116 views
steveTu
Rank
Userlevel 2
I can text from mobile to mobile ok and from BT landline to mobile. But if I text my landline from my mobile it is always being delivered via voicemail not text.
Has anyone else had the same problem?

Or is anyone out there using BT text and it works fine for them?
icon

Best answer by Mohammed 21 March 2019, 13:38

View original

59 replies

Mohammed
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +10
Hello @steveTu,

I can understand that the journey you've faced here hasn't been the easiest.

I can only advise the information that we have provided for you here.

We raised this directly to our Technical Team and they contacted Three internally to speak to their Technical Team.

The response we have received from their Team advises:

"The SMS Delivery service which we offer supports delivery to landlines via our Text-to-Speech platform. The only exception is P2A SMS which terminates on AQL-enabled SMS landline numbers. Message termination (in SMS form) to landlines is not supported for any other destinations."



This was the response directly from their team.

To summarise, Three UK have confirmed they cannot support the delivery of a text to text on landlines and it is currently being delivered as text-to-speech. This is a limitation with their current systems. We've requested Three UK to test multiple ways to see if they can enable this service in the future, however, as of now, they have advised us they are unable to fix the issue with their current systems.


This is Three UK confirming that they are not able to send the texts as SMS.

Now that we have raised the issue to Three UK, we hope that they can fix/enable this in the future, however, as of right now they are unable to offer this service.


This is the hope that Three UK are now able to work on this and can provide this as a feature in the future.

However, as of right now, this is not supported.

The answer to:
So I ask again - why can't Three deliver the mobile text as text to a BT landline?


is as above:
"The SMS Delivery service which we offer supports delivery to landlines via our Text-to-Speech platform. The only exception is P2A SMS which terminates on AQL-enabled SMS landline numbers. Message termination (in SMS form) to landlines is not supported for any other destinations."



Mohammed
I hope I was able to help you with your question. If my answer resolved your issue, then please mark my answer as ‘Most Helpful’ using the button below the message with the answer.
steveTu
Rank
Userlevel 2
@Mohammed

Again I repeat that I 'believe' that this is not your direct problem.
But I still think you're missing my point.
Let's go back 5 months. I have the issue and I don't know who is at fault. So I initially contact BT - BT 'investigate' over two or three weeks and then come back to me and tell me it was likely due to my handset (landline) and that I should chase Panasonic.

Were they correct? Should I have just stopped asking?

I chased Panasonic and they said it definitely wasn't the handset. So, I go back to BT and they insist it's not their fault. After a few weeks their 'investigation' then showed it wasn't their issue and that Three contracted AQL in 2009.

Were they correct? Should I have just stopped asking at this point?

Meanwhile - and in parallel - I was asking ID. They tell me categorically that they're passing the issue onto Three's technical people and that Three are saying that it's not them. Three do not deal with AQL.

Were they correct? Should I have just stopped asking at that point?

Meanwhile - and in parallel - I start a Resolver issue against Three (as I can't contact them directly as I don't have a Three phone/contract). They tell me categorically that they don't deal with AQL.

Were they correct? Should I have just stopped at that point?

You, after dealing with Three and Three doing 'investigations' say it is Three passing the text to AQL - but that's just how it is and that Three can't alter their systems.

How do I now know that they're correct? Should I stop at this point?

So far I have had months of ALL the parties (BT, ID and Three) just telling me blatant untruths - simply because it appears that they couldn't be bothered to investigate the issue properly. They all just took the simple route and tried to blag the issue.

Given that all other mobile networks appear to handle the issue of mobile-to-landline-texting perfectly ok, why should I actually believe that it's beyond the wit of man for Three to do the same? - especially as Three themselves state on their web pages that they handle mobile-to-landline texts ok.

So I ask again - why can't Three deliver the mobile text as text to a BT landline?

The only people who have come out of this with any credibility at all appear to be AQL. At least they investigated the issue as soon as it was raised with them and proved the situation within half an hour. No blagging - no blaming others (well, not without due cause) and no equivocation.
Mohammed
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +10
Hello @steveTu,

We can't speak for the information that was provided to you by Three UK Via Resolver and whether or not you were dismissed very quickly there without any actual investigation taking place. We can however, confirm that we raised this directly with the relevant people within Three UK internally and this was investigated by the Three UK Technical Team, something that may not have been done before if this wasn't escalated. The information we were provided is the information we have provided to you above. We can only but apologise that the response here isn't as favourable as you may have expected.

Mohammed
I hope I was able to help you with your question. If my answer resolved your issue, then please mark my answer as ‘Most Helpful’ using the button below the message with the answer.
steveTu
Rank
Userlevel 2
@Mohammed

I fully understand that it's not your direct problem and that you contract services from Three in the same way that I contract services from you.
What I'm finding difficult to swallow is the sudden turn around. As I said before - read back over this thread and you'll see that Three performed tests before. The results from those tests showed to Three that the delivery as speech was nothing to do with them - or at least that is what I was being told (for months).
I did contact Three directly - but only via Resolver - and they were adamant that it was nothing to do with them. That direct contact via Resolver terminated with them still taking the standpoint that it wasn't them and that they don't deal with AQL.
Now it seems that Three do deal with AQL and send texts to landline as voice as a matter of course. AND their systems don't allow them to change this delivery mechanism.
My point that I'm still trying to make, is if for months Three denied all knowledge, how on earth do I know now that their '...we can't change our systems...' is now true? Why can't they deliver text as text as other mobile and landline networks do?
Mohammed
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +10
@Mohammed

I can't contact Three directly as their phone system doesn't recognise my phone as being 'theirs' - and I contract their services through you. I don't have a Three account.
I did raise an issue through Resolver (that Three subscribe to to resolve disputes) with Three - but they denied all knowledge there that it was them causing the problem AND denied all knowledge of AQL. If you read this thread here from the beginning - even your own call centre staff contacted Three support, who, after performing their investigations at that time (which also included test texts) denied it was anything to do with them.
I think my issue at this stage (4 months of complete denial) is that I don't know what to believe.

If the 'investigations' that occurred earlier based on my online chats, calls to your call centre AND the Resolver complaint resulted in Three's absolute denial of their involvement in the delivery of text as speech (and involvement with AQL), then I find it hard to believe now that it's something out of their control. How on earth do I know that it's just not something they're trying to duck - ie they just can't be bothered to fix?

Hello @steveTu,

I can completely understand your frustration here, however, we do not have control of Three UK's website or their systems to provide any further information on this. We've liaised directly with Three UK regarding the issue and they have completed all necessary tests for this. Their response confirmed that they were not able to support this feature. I can only apologise that we could not offer a more favourable response here.

Mohammed
I hope I was able to help you with your question. If my answer resolved your issue, then please mark my answer as ‘Most Helpful’ using the button below the message with the answer.
steveTu
Rank
Userlevel 2
@Mohammed

I can't contact Three directly as their phone system doesn't recognise my phone as being 'theirs' - and I contract their services through you. I don't have a Three account.
I did raise an issue through Resolver (that Three subscribe to to resolve disputes) with Three - but they denied all knowledge there that it was them causing the problem AND denied all knowledge of AQL. If you read this thread here from the beginning - even your own call centre staff contacted Three support, who, after performing their investigations at that time (which also included test texts) denied it was anything to do with them.
I think my issue at this stage (4 months of complete denial) is that I don't know what to believe.

If the 'investigations' that occurred earlier based on my online chats, calls to your call centre AND the Resolver complaint resulted in Three's absolute denial of their involvement in the delivery of text as speech (and involvement with AQL), then I find it hard to believe now that it's something out of their control. How on earth do I know that it's just not something they're trying to duck - ie they just can't be bothered to fix?
Mohammed
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +10
Hello @steveTu,

Whilst I can completely understand your confusion here, unfortunately, this is the information that Three UK have provided to us after concluding their investigation on the matter. As we (iD Mobile) are a separate company to Three UK, we have no insight to their processes nor have control of the information found on their website. We can only recommend contacting Three UK for any further queries relating to this.

If you have any other queries relating to your account coverage etc, we'd be happy to assist you with this. However, if it's relating to the texting landlines, we're not able to take this further due to it being Three UK who's systems do not appear to support this for you and this is out of our control.

We'll flag the website showing this to Three UK so they're made aware of this.

Mohammed
I hope I was able to help you with your question. If my answer resolved your issue, then please mark my answer as ‘Most Helpful’ using the button below the message with the answer.
steveTu
Rank
Userlevel 2
@Mohammed
But what you, and Three appear to be saying is completely at odds with their web site - http://support.three.co.uk/SRVS/CGI-BIN/WEBISAPI.DLL?Command=New,Kb=Mobile,Ts=Mobile,T=Article,varset_cat=callsemails,varset_subcat=3788,Case=obj(3173)

They state there that texts will be delivered to landlines as text if the landline is text enabled, which mine is. On top of that, Three have stated for 4 months that they don't deal with AQL.

Totally confused still.
Mohammed
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +10
Hello @steveTu,

Thank you for your patience in this matter.

Three UK have now concluded their investigation on the matter.

The updated response we received on their findings were:

"The SMS Delivery service which we offer supports delivery to landlines via our Text-to-Speech platform. The only exception is P2A SMS which terminates on AQL-enabled SMS landline numbers. Message termination (in SMS form) to landlines is not supported for any other destinations."



To summarise, Three UK have confirmed they cannot support the delivery of a text to text on landlines and it is currently being delivered as text-to-speech. This is a limitation with their current systems. We've requested Three UK to test multiple ways to see if they can enable this service in the future, however, as of now, they have advised us they are unable to fix the issue with their current systems.

Now that we have raised the issue to Three UK, we hope that they can fix/enable this in the future, however, as of right now they are unable to offer this service.

We don't have any further information we can provide on this and if you do have any further technical queries, we'd recommend contacting Three UK directly for this as they have confirmed it is from their end and not iD Mobile's fault.

Whilst I can understand that this may not resolve the actual issue you're facing (by enabling the text-text you require), we do feel this does answer the original post you raised.

We are therefore marking this topic as resolved.

Mohammed
I hope I was able to help you with your question. If my answer resolved your issue, then please mark my answer as ‘Most Helpful’ using the button below the message with the answer.
Mohammed
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +10
Hello @steveTu,

I can only but apologise that the matter has been going on for so long. We have been liaising with Three UK regarding this as they are the ones who would arrange for the text to be sent as a text rather than speech. The tests we've completed so far have been on behalf of Three UK so they can analyse the results of these as they continue to work on the issue. We can't provide specifics for what you have requested regarding AQL, as it currently sits with the Three UK's Team for testing and is outside of our TechTeam.

Once we have a response (and fingers crossed a fix for the issue) from Three UK, we'll be sure to provide this update to you here.

Mohammed
I hope I was able to help you with your question. If my answer resolved your issue, then please mark my answer as ‘Most Helpful’ using the button below the message with the answer.
steveTu
Rank
Userlevel 2
@Kevin
So you're saying, after 4 months, you still have no idea as to who is responsible for passing the text to AQL for delivery as speech?
Can I ask then what has the last month of tests proven so far? Surely there was no point in performing the tests, unless you could analyse the results? The tests showed that certain texts were being delivered by AQL as voice. What did you learn from that? Who passed the text to AQL for delivery?
Kevin
Rank
Userlevel 4
Badge +10
Hi Steve.

This is very much still an ongoing matter between ourselves and Three. So whilst unfortunately we don't have news on this just yet, this is still under investigation.

We do very much apologise for how long this has taken to this point though.
steveTu
Rank
Userlevel 2
@Ryan @Mohammed

The 'test texts' were a month ago. This issue is now circa 4 months old.

What is happening?
Mohammed
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +10
@Ryan @Mohammed

I sincerely appreciate that you're trying to help.
My frustration stems from the fact that this issue is heading towards being 4 months old and up until 20+ days ago, iD and Three denied all responsibility. I still haven't seen anywhere here where iD (Three) have actually said it is them passing the text to AQL. So have Three now acknowledged that it is them passing the text to AQL for delivery as speech?

Hey @steveTu,

We appreciate that you'd like an answer to whether it's Three UK passing the text to AQL this way, however, we're still working with Three UK to get to the bottom of this. Once we have any further information, we will let you know here.

We apologise for the time taken thus far and appreciate your co-operation here.

Mohammed
I hope I was able to help you with your question. If my answer resolved your issue, then please mark my answer as ‘Most Helpful’ using the button below the message with the answer.
steveTu
Rank
Userlevel 2
@Ryan @Mohammed

I sincerely appreciate that you're trying to help.
My frustration stems from the fact that this issue is heading towards being 4 months old and up until 20+ days ago, iD and Three denied all responsibility. I still haven't seen anywhere here where iD (Three) have actually said it is them passing the text to AQL. So have Three now acknowledged that it is them passing the text to AQL for delivery as speech?
Ryan
Rank
Userlevel 6
Badge +10
Hi @SteveTu

The review of your issue is currently with Three. We are trying to find out as much information as possible for you before we come back to you with an answer. We believe there may be an issue with how Three process these messages but we do not want to confirm this until we have a definitive answer.

We are hoping Three can fix this issue and so that is why we are arranging subsequent test messages that may come to you. Once we have a response from them we will update you.

Ryan
I hope I was able to help you with your question. If you found my answer helpful or if I was able to answer your question, please mark my answer as ‘Most Helpful’ and 'Like' my message using the button below the answer.
steveTu
Rank
Userlevel 2
@Ryan @Mohammed
I'm not sure that I follow the complexity of the issue. Surely it is possible to trace a text (and thereby initially prove beyond a doubt that it is Three perfoming the check?)? And if the AQL flowchart is to be believed (and so far no reason why not), then some interface code is performing a check to see if my landline is text enabled. Isn't then a simple case of following how that interface performs that check? I doubt if the interface is physically checking my landline phone - so presumably there's a database somewhere that holds the fact that my landline is text enabled - and given that other networks are managing texts to my landline ok - isn't it likely that Three have either a simple bug in that interface OR they're using the wrong database to validate against?
Mohammed
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +10
Hello @steveTu,

Thanks for confirming that.

We are still looking into this and I will pass on the update to the Team. We'll use this in our ongoing investigation with Three to continue with the progress on this investigations. Thank you for your continued patience and apologies for the time it's taken thus far to get a resolution. We can assure you that we're working with Three UK to resolve this as soon as possible.

Mohammed
I hope I was able to help you with your question. If my answer resolved your issue, then please mark my answer as ‘Most Helpful’ using the button below the message with the answer.
steveTu
Rank
Userlevel 2
@Ryan @Mohammed
Just received another 'Test' message - it came through as voice from 03333440000 at 10:04.
Kevin
Rank
Userlevel 4
Badge +10
Hi @steveTu

Mohammed isn't in today for me to poke him for an update on this, though I know he is still on the case with this one.

Expect to hear more from him by Monday/ Tuesday of next week here.
steveTu
Rank
Userlevel 2
@Mohammed @Ryan

It's been nearly two weeks since the 'test' texts - and this whole issue has been going on for circa 3 months. So there has been plenty of time (and opportunity) to have performed traces of the texts to see who is at fault. I have personally requested traces be done over the past few months.

So are Three passing the texts to AQL for delivery as voice (and if so, why?) or are they passing the texts to BT for delivery?
Mohammed
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +10
@Mohammed @Ryan

Any update on this?

Hello @SteveTu

We have not forgotten about you and thank you for your patience while we look into this for you. We are currently liaising with Three to try and get a final answer for you in relation as to why this is happening. We will come back to you as soon as we have a response.

Many thanks
I hope I was able to help you with your question. If my answer resolved your issue, then please mark my answer as ‘Most Helpful’ using the button below the message with the answer.
steveTu
Rank
Userlevel 2
@Mohammed @Ryan

Any update on this?
Ryan
Rank
Userlevel 6
Badge +10
Hi @steveTu,

Thank you for that information. We are liaising with Three for this issue and we will have it further investigated and we'll be back in touch soon.

Ryan
I hope I was able to help you with your question. If you found my answer helpful or if I was able to answer your question, please mark my answer as ‘Most Helpful’ and 'Like' my message using the button below the answer.
steveTu
Rank
Userlevel 2
@Mohammed
The receipt times:
Test1 - 16:13
Test2 - 16:13
Test3 - 16:14

Test4 - 16:15

Reply


Terms & Conditions
Why iD Mobile?