Can'T Phone Thailand Mobile From Uk

[w11guy]

I have recently moved to BKK and have a 1-2-call sim card with number 085xxxxxxx. I can make and receive calls and texts in Thailand and have also received texts from my mates in the UK. However, my Mum says she has tried calling me numerous times but can never get through. She gets a recorded message in Thai followed by a message in English saying to try again later. Has anyone had this problem or does anyone have any idea what may be wrong. She's calling from a landline. It sounds like she has got through to Thailand but something is stopping her getting through to my phone. It's very puzzzling. Any ideas? She's dialling correctly... 00-66-85-xxxxxxx.

[laps]

Your Mum should try to change the last 2-3 digitis in your number to some randomly picked numbers. That way you can clear out wether the problem is in Thailand or

in her area.

[w11guy]

Your Mum should try to change the last 2-3 digitis in your number to some randomly picked numbers. That way you can clear out wether the problem is in Thailand or

in her area.

How will that solve it. If she can't get through on the random number she tries, she still won't know where the problem is. I'm assuming that because there is a Thai recorded message, it must be coming from Thailand.

[welo]

I recently had problems with my wife's phone that international calls would not 'get through' to my phone. Even though my phone being on and at full signal strength it would not ring when somebody called.

She is on 12call as well.

It appears to be tied to the SIM card. Others suggested that replacing it (while keeping the number) might solve the problem, might be due to a SIM card problem and hers is actually a view years old. Haven't had the chance to do that yet.

The problem seemed to be more frequent with international calls, however, it might just as well be that in those cases one is more attentive and aware of the failed call.

Check out my topic.

Edited June 18, 2010 by welo

[Chivas]

I haven't been able today to get through to thai mobiles on 1-2-call so could be a network problem or area problem

[w11guy]

I recently had problems with my wife's phone that international calls would not 'get through' to my phone. Even though my phone being on and at full signal strength it would not ring when somebody called.

She is on 12call as well.

It appears to be tied to the SIM card. Others suggested that replacing it (while keeping the number) might solve the problem, might be due to a SIM card problem and hers is actually a view years old. Haven't had the chance to do that yet.

The problem seemed to be more frequent with international calls, however, it might just as well be that in those cases one is more attentive and aware of the failed call.

Check out my topic.

I just read your other post. Did you replace the SIm card and did it make a difference. I've only been here a few weeks so I'm tempted to get a completely new sim card with new number.

[w11guy]

I haven't been able today to get through to thai mobiles on 1-2-call so could be a network problem or area problem

The problem isn't just today. My Mum has tried calling a few times over the last 2-3 weeks. She has never been connected.

[mrclough]

I wouldn't imagine replacing the sim card would make any difference!

When the call is initiated from abroad it is routed by the service provider to an international gateway which then takes that call to the required destination. All calls come into that country via their gateway(s) and then are routed to the required network (in your case 1-2-call?) Once the required network picks this call up it is then routed the same as any other call on that network, be it fixed line or mobile.

That is why I don't think it's your sim, if you can recieve calls from within Thailand then you should be able to recieve calls from abroad just the same.

SMS works in almost the same way but is unreliable as a form of communication as it has no priority on a GSM network. You may get a report on your handset which says delivered, all this means is the network has had the message delivered to them. It does NOT mean it has been delivered to the recipient or even sent on by your network - Fact !

I would suggest getting your mom to contact her operator and get them to check that the call is routing correctly from her end. If this is the case, you may need to present examples of time & dates including your location for your network to be able to fully investigate the problem from their end. This may not be the easiest of things to explain to a thai though due to language gaps.

May also be worth spending a little money on a sim for a different network and letting your mum try this, I use DTAC and know from experience that you can call it without problems from the UK at least, from both fixed and mobile networks. I previously also used True and had no problem with them.

I hope this helps give you some idea that there are many stages in connecting an international phone call and therefore many stages where there could be a problem.

Best of luck on getting to the bottom of it all !

[welo]

mrclough,

your post seems well reasoned. I didn't switch the SIM card yet so I don't know if this will fix the problem.

I am pretty sure that my problem (can't speak for the OP) only occurs with one SIM card. I used a second SIM card and of course second phone for troubleshooting, using all possible combinations and checking the outcome.

Troubleshooting is not easy as always if a problem doesn't have a 100% failure rate. You have to be careful to draw conclusions and repeat a test several times before assuming that it worked or did not work. There is always the chance that it was just randomness that made it work/not work after a specific change in the setup.

I actually found a setup where I could achieve a high failure rate that allowed me to troubleshoot more easily. Namely using a Thai based VOIP phone service that provides a callback service. You call a number in Bangkok, they will hang up after a view rings, and call you back (automatically by a machine) a view seconds later.

In my case, using one SIM card (in either phone) would lead to the callback not reaching my phone (no ring, no missed call) most of the times (it actually drove me nuts!). When the problem started the phone call would actually reach my voicebox and record the machine voice, therefore I disabled the voicebox later in the process.

Switching the SIM card to another phone would yield the same result. Another SIM card in both phones with the same service and test setup would work 100% of the times.

During all the time the signal would have maximum strength.

Test calls from my second phone or a friend's phone would not trigger the problem, or at least not during my tests.

Go figure that one out!!

I don't know enough about mobile phone networks to explain that behavior. I still can't be sure that my conclusions are 100% accurate. I didn't run that many test calls, and didn't vary the test scenario enough to rule out other components involved (e.g. run the test from a different location using a different antenna tower)

I am very interested in your analysis of my situation.

Make sure you read my original discussion topic as well.

welo

[mrclough]

Hi Welo,

I did reply to your original post with the problem your having and it is indeed a strange one!! It may be the issue does indeed relate to your sim card or possibly the number you have and the way its set up on the network.

I agree that you've done pretty much everything you can up to the point of changing your sim so maybe this could be the way forward. The good thing about changing it and keeping the same number is that when the new sim serial number is added to your account on the network to replace the old one and start working part of the process is that it refreshes your profile on the network meaning that any of the data that could possibly be missing should be updated /replaced and then should work fine ..... SHOULD lol.....

Consider it in likeness to data missing from a computer program ..... if one tiny part is not right, many things can go wrong and appear strange! Once the error is corrected all is well and working correctly again.

As far as the callback systems go .... they're a whole different ball game and can be a pain in the back side at the best of times from my experience. When using these systems to make international calls it puts a whole lot more equations and room for errors into the process.

The up shot of all this is that there's very little left to check to get to the route of your problem so it shouldn't be long before your up and running as normal again.

Have fun with it lol

[jerrybeirne]

try this number for cheap calls from a u.k. landline to a thai mobile, 084497229700. after calling, wait for the voice prompt then enter 0066xxxxxxxx. it works when people call me, i'm on dtac/happy.

good luck.

[Budinga]

I had the same problem on the friday and the saturday i couldent get trough but SMS worked fine we thought it was the little one playing with the phone .

[Monokuro]

When I got my first 12call phone I had this problem - after talking to AIS customer services, they told me that as the number bank was new (08X - I can't remember what the X was) they weren't setup properly to route calls from abroad (from within Thailand it was fine).

Only solution was the change the number.

Don't know if that's the same issue you have, but that's what happened to me

[crev]

Maybe let your mum try another number, maybe your new found friend mobile number. That way you can tell if the problem is in your mom's end. If the call can go through then you might need to change mobile number or provider. If the call still can not go through then your mom might need to try another provider in U.K.

I just let a friend use my Onesuite account (prepaid phone card) to call from UK to Thailand (mobile) and it went through.