Thailand's Mobile Phones Now 10-digit Numbers - Total Confusion

[gdhm]

Thailand's mobile phones now 10-digit numbers - total confusion

EXTRACT

....5. Soon you will receive a SMS message from your mobile provider to change your SMS settings to include the extra "8" in your phone setting for "SMS Service Centre", but you can leave that for the next few weeks.

-- thaivisa.com 2006-09-01

//edit - fix a typo

//

Fri 01 Sep 06, 6:16 p.m.

Update On Mobile Numbers Changing From 9 To 10 Digits.........5. Soon you will receive a SMS message from your mobile provider to change your SMS settings to include the extra "8" in your phone setting for "SMS Service Centre", but you can leave that for the next few weeks.

6. Please inform you international phone friends and collegues of the new situation. As the example above, you international phone number was +6615432109 - now it is +66815432109

The alteration of local mobile phones to the 10-digit system is to cope with the kingdom's expanding demand for mobile phone services in coming years, according to the National Telecommunication Commission (NTC).

-- thaivisa.com 2006-09-01

Well I have just found a "Spanner in the works".

I am with AIS. I decided to update my SMS Service centre number immediately and not wait for any messages (that may be in Thai anyway).

I tested and all was working fine (I thought) with both incoming AND outgoing with the extra 8.

HOWEVER, today (after nearly a week) I tried sending an SMS to a friend in Spain. I was very quickly given a "message cannot be sent try later". I did, and did again.

Then a thought came to mind. What happens if I change the new Message centre number back to the old one (without the 8)?

Answer: SUCCESS sent and delivered immediately.

JUST to check that this was the reason, and not just the service being up and running again I tried again with the new 10 digit number (AND failed ).

No doubt AIS will soon realise that nobody (unless it is just me or my phone) can SMS to outside Thailand with the new number SMS (unless it is Spain specific)

Anybody else run into this?

Dave

[gdhm]

My SINCERE appologies for any confusion and duplication of the same extract quote a few minutes ago,

I accidently inserted a duplicate quote from the Khon Kaen Forum (WHICH gave credit to THAIVISA Forum when cut and pasted).

I have said the same comments in the khon Kaen Forum for info but forgot when replying here to remove the Khon Kaen quote

Dave

[Miksu]

Have people had problems with these new numbers? Been using this additional 8-digit when calling since september but now suddenly in recent days I've faced problems with it. Very often, if not always, the call gets directed to totally wrong people when using the new number system. With the old system everything works fine. Is this just me or have others had same kind of problems too?