Android phone cannot send SMS

[MarkRob]

Hi All

I've been struggling now the whole day to get my phone to send sms's. I can receive sms's no problem, but sending just refuses to work.
(I am using a SE X10 on Vodacom)

I have google'ed international websites with numerous excellent ideas. I quickly discovered that Android has no simple method within the standard phone settings for changing the SMS Centre number and that this was obviously my problem.
The first idea that was going to work well was to Dial *#*#4636#*#*, then click on Phone Information, Scroll Down to SMSC number, key in the new number and click "Update"

Unfortunately I got a "Unable to Update" message in return.

I then discovered that if I put a MTN Sim in that it worked fine...
So I found someone with a new Vodacom Sim and tried that and it worked.

After much Google'ing I managed to find out that the SMSC number is sometimes stored on the SIM as a default. I now suspect that this is the problem with my phone. The default on my SIM contains the wrong number. I am now going to try 2 things.
1. Put the SIM into another phone that enables me to change the default SMSC on it.
2. Follow these instructions - http://forum.xda-developers.com/archive/index.php/t-433433.html
(PS. Instead of using ATCommander apparently Hyper Terminal is just as good, however to do all of this you need a COM Port for your phone and I haven't quite figured that part out yet)

I'll let you all know if I manage to solve it. Otherwise... anyone else had these problems?

[Madman88]

How old is your sim?

If its not a 64k or a 128k maybe its worth doing a sim swap? VC charges about R60 to do it.

[MarkRob]

It's a 32K! :) I came right last night. My old phone is a Windows Mobile HTC Diamond and I went into the phone settings. There it actaully has the default SMSC setting. It was set to +27829129. I changed it to +27829119 and inserted back into my Andriod phone and it came right.

(PS. I also thought of a SIM Swap, but since it is a company phone that would have been infinitely more complicated than trying what I listed above, was basicly my last resort)

[lcbxx]

I enountered this problem suddenly this past Saturday when my phone just stopped sending SMS's. It worked 100% on the Friday evening and on Saturday it just does not want to send SMS's (it still received, though).
I went into the same menu as you did and tapped the 'Refresh' button to see what the number is, this is what came out:
http://www.mybroadband.co.za/photos/data/500/screenshot-1343649495620.png
Deleting that garbage and typing the MTN SMSC number (+27831000002) doesn't work. I get and 'update error' when tapping the 'Update' button:
http://www.mybroadband.co.za/photos/data/500/screenshot-1343649965113.png
Error
http://www.mybroadband.co.za/photos/data/500/screenshot-1343649974835.png

[lcbxx]

I popped the MTN SIM into another phone (Nokia E51) and there were 3 messaging centres configured. One called 'MTN-SMS' with the correct number and 2 other called 'SMS Center Number' with +27829119 in both. I deleted the 2 wrong ones, leaving only MTN SMS. I sent a SMS from the Nokia and it worked.
Putting the SIM back into my Android, no luck, still can't send SMS's. Pop the SIM back in the Nokia, only to find the 'SMS Center Number' with +27829119 was back. So I deleted both (MTN-SMS & SMS Center Number) and rebooted the Nokia. Upon reboot, the 'SMS Center Number' with +27829119 was back. I tested, and could not send an SMS.

It seems by default the MTN SIM picks up Vodacom SMS details. Why would it do that?

[lcbxx]

SOLVED:
Eventually borrowed the Nanny's R80 MTN Phone and edited the SMS Centre Number on there. Popped it back into the Android and viola, it works. The SMSC query still returns garbled data but at least I can send messages.