Mobile and landline texts?
QI use my smartphone only away from home. Conversely, my Panasonic KX-TGA856E landline is always connected, and supports SMS. Years ago, both my doctor and dental surgeries used to send text reminders to my home number. However, they now tell me they can send texts only to mobile numbers. The same applies to most of my online accounts, which only accept mobile numbers. Is there perhaps a security issue involved or is there a technical reason?
AAt the core, there’s no difference between an SMS text message sent to and received by a mobile phone and one that’s sent to and received by a traditional landline phone. However, there are good reasons why some companies refuse to send text messages to landlines.
First, it’s important to understand that, unlike more modern messaging systems and services – such as
John R Varley
Whatsapp – there’s no guarantee that a sent traditional SMS text message will get through to its destination, nor any indication to the sender that it has done so. That’s true of SMS texts sent to either a mobile or a landline.
However, while almost all mobilephone networks – and mobile phones – still support the ageing SMS system, the same is not true of landline providers. Moreover, even fewer landline handsets support the display of SMS text messages. Your model (pictured right) is in the minority that does.
Where landline providers do support SMS texts, as with the BT Text service ( www.snipca.com/39070), customers generally must opt in. Many don’t realise this, or don’t want to. Then, for those without a landline handset like yours that’s capable of displaying SMS texts, received messages are read out by a robot voice – but the proliferation of automated scam calls means many people are suspicious of automated speakers, so hang up. There are also sometimes cost implications, as service providers might charge more for sending texts to landlines, where text-to-voice conversions have to be performed.
All of this makes sending SMS messages to landlines a hit-and-miss affair, so many organisations have simply decided that it’s not worth the bother.
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