SMS text messaging between main J carriers to start from July 13, 2011

It's been in the works for 2 years, but as of an official announcement (June 1), Japan will finally join the rest of the world in allowing mobile phone users to send SMS (short mail) to the phone number of users on different service providers.

The 5 providers are: NTT (docomo), KDDI and Okinawa Cellular (AU), Softbank, eAccess (EMOBILE)

Five Japanese cellphone service providers said Wednesday they will interconnect their phone networks for short text message services on July 13, allowing such messages to be sent to and from their rival firms' handsets.

Announcement on Kyodo news

Tags: AU, EMobile, SMS, Softbank, docomo, messaging, text

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Dan Burgess on July 14, 2011 at 2:20pm

I tried texting from my iPhone 3GS to users on AU and docomo with no luck today (get an error message saying it cannot be sent).

AU seems to have limited it to 5 models, and I can't find anything that says the iPhone is exempt. I did see a Japanese tech blog that showed screen captures of an iPhone doing SMS with a Japanese Android phone (unclear if the iPhone was a 4 or 3GS).

Anybody having SMS success with an iPhone?

Permalink Reply by ketahi on July 17, 2011 at 6:05pm

Yup-

Was able to successfully SMS text between softbank iPhone 3GS and au dumbphone this morning. Works seamlessly. Receiving SMS from au was also fine.

Permalink Reply by Dan Burgess on July 17, 2011 at 9:14pm

Hmm, still no luck here. I still get the same error saying that it cannot be sent (to both AU and docomo numbers).

I don't see any particular settings that could affect it, and regular SMS with other iPhones works just fine.

I've got the latest OS, so maybe the problem is with the 3GS itself.

Permalink Reply by ketahi on July 18, 2011 at 6:58am

You might be running iOS 4.3.4, but what is your baseband version? 5.16.02?

Permalink Reply by Dan Burgess on July 18, 2011 at 11:16am

I've got iOS 4.3.4, and the modem firmware is 05.16.02. Seems up to date (and I've never j/b either).

Every time I do an iOS upgrade, I have to do a full restore for some reason (the last 2 or 3 times anyway).

Must be some problems so it doesn't surprise me that SMS doesn't work.

Permalink Reply by ketahi on July 18, 2011 at 11:14pm

Not that I think it makes a difference, but I was SMS texting in Japanese, with iOS also set with Japanese language settings. How about trying that?

Permalink Reply by Dan Burgess on July 19, 2011 at 10:19am

I switched the iOS to Japanese and tried to send a Japanese SMS, but get exactly the same error.

I don't really have any need to send SMS, but it would have been handy occasionally if it worked.