Eircom dont have contract with Three Mobile for sms, why?

Antomus Prime

Hey guys, just looking for a bit of info here. I'm with Three mobile for my iphone and ever since I switched to them I dont recieve texts from landlines anymore. This wouldnt really be a big issue only for the fact that my house alarm send a notification to my phone via sms whenever the alarm is triggered. I've asked the guys over in the Three forum but they wont give me a straight answer as to why they dont have an agreement with eircom for this service. So I'm just wondering why this is, and is there ever going to be an agreement between the two companies because I need to know if the alarm goes off and I'm stuck in a 24 month contract with 3 so I cant even switch provider. Any info on this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

DJMG92

*BUMP*

I would like to know why is this also?

My alarm wont text me either... Its kind of important?

Be great if someone from Eircom could reply.

molby

It's a disgrace.Two so called reputable companies and they can't get together and sort this out.Lots of houses out there with alarms and can't get contacted if their alarms go off.I have to rely on a neighbour to ring me if my alarm goes off because of this fiasco.No doubt Eircom will blame 3 and 3 will blame Eircom.Wish one of them would man up and say who's not playing ball.Ye are both a disgrace.

molby

Any response from Eircom on this?

molby

Still waiting for response

molby

Does anybody from Eircom actually use this forum or are we wasting our time? Still no answer on this issue. The same question has been asked on the 3 forum and at least they had the decency to answer.

eircom: Ant

Antomus Prime wrote: »

Hey guys, just looking for a bit of info here. I'm with Three mobile for my iphone and ever since I switched to them I dont recieve texts from landlines anymore. This wouldnt really be a big issue only for the fact that my house alarm send a notification to my phone via sms whenever the alarm is triggered. I've asked the guys over in the Three forum but they wont give me a straight answer as to why they dont have an agreement with eircom for this service. So I'm just wondering why this is, and is there ever going to be an agreement between the two companies because I need to know if the alarm goes off and I'm stuck in a 24 month contract with 3 so I cant even switch provider. Any info on this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Hi Antomus Prime,

Thanks for your query, and apologies for the delay.

I will look into this and get back to you shortly.

Best wishes,
Ant

eircom: Ant

Antomus Prime wrote: »

Hey guys, just looking for a bit of info here. I'm with Three mobile for my iphone and ever since I switched to them I dont recieve texts from landlines anymore. This wouldnt really be a big issue only for the fact that my house alarm send a notification to my phone via sms whenever the alarm is triggered. I've asked the guys over in the Three forum but they wont give me a straight answer as to why they dont have an agreement with eircom for this service. So I'm just wondering why this is, and is there ever going to be an agreement between the two companies because I need to know if the alarm goes off and I'm stuck in a 24 month contract with 3 so I cant even switch provider. Any info on this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Thanks Antomus Prime,

From what you say, this may in the first place be related to the monitored alarm company that you have employed to install your alarm system. They may need to look at the way they activate and notify you when the alarm is set off.

I have sought advice on this and the information I have is that eircom will attempt to send text message to whatever provider. Accordingly, if the message is not received then you may wish to seek further advice on this from your mobile provider. May be contact 3 again, just to clarify this.

I've have also spoken with PhoneWatch, eircom's own monitoring alarm company. They have advised that they work on a different setup to other monitored alarm systems.

Their monitoring station will manually contact customers, as opposed to sending SMS, etc They further advise that they don't discriminate against contacting a customer, by mobile provider, and this is not an issue.

Your monitor alarm company will obviously be able to advise you on alternative options they have in place, in order to contact you directly when the alarm is set off.

You might specifically check what sim card in installed with your monitored alarm. This may not be compatilble and your monitored alarm company may be able to change this sim card. If the sim card is compatible then let me know and also contact 3, to advise them on this.

In the first place, then you should contact your monitored alarm company and they may be able to resolve this quickly.

Best wishes,
Ant

jeckle

Hi Ant,

The issue has nothing to do with monitored alarms, or alarm monitoring companies. It is to do with an SMS sent from an Eircom landline not being received by a Three mobile customer. The OP does not have a monitored alarm (from post history). The fact that the SMS is being sent for the purpose of alarm activation notification is secondary, & certainly has absolutely nothing to do with Eircom Phonewatch.

It's an SMS issue, not an alarm, alarm company, alarm monitoring company or SIM card issue. The SMS is being sent from the Eircom landline - not from a mobile SIM card.

The Eircom SMS facility works to other networks e.g. 02, Vodafone - just not to Three Ireland.

eircom: Ant

jeckle wrote: »

Hi Ant,

The issue has nothing to do with monitored alarms, or alarm monitoring companies. It is to do with an SMS sent from an Eircom landline not being received by a Three mobile customer. The OP does not have a monitored alarm (from post history). The fact that the SMS is being sent for the purpose of alarm activation notification is secondary, & certainly has absolutely nothing to do with Eircom Phonewatch.

It's an SMS issue, not an alarm, alarm company, alarm monitoring company or SIM card issue. The SMS is being sent from the Eircom landline - not from a mobile SIM card.

The Eircom SMS facility works to other networks e.g. 02, Vodafone - just not to Three Ireland.

Cheers jeckle,

I will look into this to see if I can help you further.

Regards,
Ant

jeckle

eircom: Ant wrote: »

Cheers jeckle,

I will look into this to see if I can help you further.

Regards,
Ant

jeckle

Three have officially confirmed HERE that the issue is Eircoms fault.

Why are Eircom deliberately blocking SMS messages sent by their customers to Three mobile customers?

Can an Eircom rep arrange for this facility to be unblocked ASAP please.

Antomus Prime

Cheers for that keckie. I know its nothing to do with sim cards (because there isnt one), monotoring companies (beacuse there isnt one). The problem is that we have 6 phones set up to recieve the text when the alarm is triggered and we can see on the phone bill that the texts are being sent and charged but we dont recieve them on the mobiles.

That post by Three:Patrick is very vague, Eircom:Ant could you see if you could find out what he's refering to?

KoolKid

It just there is no billing agreement, nothing else. With Eircom its always try to blame someone else first.
I had them even try to tell a customer of mine to disconnect her alarm because you can't have an alarm with broadband. OK for Phonewatch of course :rolleyes:...

cgarrad

TIL:

People still use eircom.

Solair

Seems a bit daft to offer the service if it doesn't work to all Irish mobiles.

davidod1

I have been after Three for some help in this matter as well. After a couple of slightly vague email responses I finally received this slightly more detailed response from them.

********************
Thanks for getting in touch.

As mentioned to you earlier, we’re sorry but we do not support house alarm system. Therefore, you’ll not receive alerts on your Three mobile. We’re unable to comment on the other networks supporting this function.

If you have any more questions, feel free to give us a call on our freephone 1913, or email us on Customer.Services.ie@3mail.com and we’ll do all we can to help.
********************

My House Alarm company have offered a monitoring deal at €90 p/a. Not an excessive charge considering it would appear to bring the service in-line with that of the Eircom PhoneWatch system.

So it looks like unless an agreement is made between Three and Eircom there is no other way around the problem. I don't know if there is any move to create any agreement between them but I can understand Eircom's reticence.

Dave

KoolKid

We don't support house alarm systems??
What exactly does that mean?
Like UPC & Eircom I think they mean they done understand house alarm systems. Their system would have no way of knowing is a call or SMS is generated from an alarm of a normal phone .

Any alarm system monitored by a central station conforms to the same standards. They do not have to be in line with Eircom PW.

Solair

I don't understand that email either!

Eh, I suppose they must mean that they do not guarantee the quality of service of their landline SMS system is sufficient to ensure that a house alarm system would be reliable.

Their SMS service isn't intended for this purpose.

I would actually suspect that landline SMS has been a bit of a marketing disaster as VERY few people use it, mostly because the handsets that were produced so far have been really cumbersome to text on. I haven't yet found one that is any good.

I wouldn't be surprised if the service were ultimately withdrawn due to lack of interest.

UPC and other networks don't support landline SMS at all.

KoolKid

Solair wrote: »

I suppose they must mean that they do not guarantee the quality of service of their landline SMS system is sufficient to ensure that a house alarm system would be reliable.

Their SMS service isn't intended for this purpose.

No service provider is going to guarantee sms reception at any given time anyway. To say we don't support alarm panels just shows total lack of understanding to be honest.

davidod1

I suspect and took it to mean that they they just don't have an agreement with Eircom to handle SMS from landlines.

jeckle

Yes, that's exactly what they meant. I purposely didn't mention anything about alarms in my last enquiry, as I think doing so leads to more confusion as regards explaining the problem. This was their reply in Oct 2011:

---

I am writing in response to your recent communication with Three.

Currently, we don’t support landline texts from Eircom, and I’m sorry for the inconvenience that this has caused for you. I have forwarded the details of your case to the relevant team. They will consider your feedback, and look into incorporating this service in the future.

I’m sorry that we’re unable to accommodate your request right away. If you have any more questions, feel free to give us a call on freephone 1913, and ask to speak to a member of our Executive Office Team, or email us at External.Affairs.ie@3mail.com Our customers are important to us, and we’re always happy to help.

---

Though around the same time I was told by phone that they did not intend supporting this feature.

davidod1

Did you try an email?, if not I might try that and see what response I get at this stage.

jeckle

That answer was in response to a formal complaint that I made by email on the advice of ComReg back in Sept 2011, following numerous calls.

I never followed it up with ComReg at the time, but I've since been onto them again, & they said that because of the timeframe that I should send another formal complaint & they would contact Three to see if they can prise any info out of Three, which I did & am awaiting a reply which they must send within 10 working days. I'm not very confident that they will be any more successful than I've already been, so it may once again be a case of swings & roundabouts.

Incidentally, I asked them had anyone else complained about the issue & they said mine was the first query they had received, so you & anyone else affected may want to contact them to get a case number & then send a formal complaint by email to Three. ComRegs number is 01 8049600.

You have to put FORMAL COMPLAINT in the subject line - otherwise your email will simply be ignored. I wouldn't even mention alarms to either ComReg or Three, as this seems to confuse matters to begin with. The email address is Customer.Services.ie@3mail.com & I CC'd External.Affairs.ie@3mail.com

Feel free to use the following as a template & adjust:

Three Account Number: xxxxxxxxxx

To whom it concerns:

I wish to lodge a formal complaint as advised by ComReg. SMS messages as detailed below sent from Eircom landline number 0xxxxxxxx have not been received on my Three Ireland mobile number 08xxxxxxxx. SMS messages sent at the same time to both 02 & Vodafone mobile numbers were received, so I want to know why I didn't receive them please.

28/11/2011 at 20:52
28/11/2011 at 21:33
14/12/2011 at 18:12
14/12/2011 at 18:13
05/02/2012 at 17:28
05/02/2012 at 17:29
25/02/2012 at 23:50
25/02/2012 at 23:55

I look forward to your swift reply, as I need to get to the bottom of this problem in conjunction with ComReg as soon as possible.
Regards & thanks,

davidod1

I haven't made a complaint to ComReg but I will do so now.

Thanks for all the info Jeckle and the template suggestion.

Dave

molby

Over on the 3 forum it says that this is an Eircom issue. Can you please give us an answer on this .

Solair

In my opinion, it's actually a failure of ComReg and/or the Department of Communications / Government to give ComReg the necessary powers to carry out regulation properly.

The telecommunications network should work seamlessly and it shouldn't be up to end users to expect to know that a particular mobile company has no interconnection agreement with a particular landline company.

An SMS is an SMS and it should just go through - end of story.

Interconnection should be a requirement of both companies licenses.

I mean, can you imagine a situation where you couldn't call people on a particular network because there was no interconnect agreement between your carrier and theirs. It's a bit of a joke!

If you offer SMS service, it should work and that applies to both eircom and 3 as if there's no agreement between the two parties, traffic won't flow from 3's mobiles to eircom's landlines either.

I realise SMS landline service is a fairly obscure platform, but if you're going to offer it at all, it should work properly and to all networks, certainly within Ireland if not within the whole EU.

molby

Well Ant, only been 22 days and still no word on this.

molby

Still no answer on this from Eircom. On the 3 forum today it says from one of the reps that this is an Eircom issue. Could you please give us an answer on this as we can then decide whether to get rid of 3 or Eircom. I have never come across such incompetence in all my life from supposedly reputable companies. Please sort this out.

Solair

eircom could well be owned by "3" if their new bid gets accepted by the eircom examiner!

http://www.irishexaminer.com/business/three-ireland-to-make-revised-offer-for-eircom-after-2bn-bid-rejected-192838.html

jay93

Solair wrote: »

eircom could well be owned by "3" if their new bid gets accepted by the eircom examiner!

http://www.irishexaminer.com/business/three-ireland-to-make-revised-offer-for-eircom-after-2bn-bid-rejected-192838.html

Three seem determined to buy out Eircom im doubting that it will ever happen