Sending to international numbers

Charges

You can send texts to international numbers, but this may cost more than 1 credit, depending on the country. 

For information about costs for specific countries, see Text Anywhere's support information.

Text Anywhere: International SMS Charges

Message failures

Some countries require content of text messages and/or sender ID to be pre-approved by their networks.  In some countries, messages sent from an alphanumeric identifier are not accepted. The identifier may be replaced, or the message may be blocked.  

We have identified that some messages sent to international numbers have failed to be sent. In particular, China and the USA have high failure rates.

General Advice

1. Check the country code of the number.
2. If the code is 86, check the guidance below on using templates for Chinese numbers.
3. For any other international country code, we recommend  checking TextAnywhere's support information on specific countries - note this is not definitive as requirements change frequently:

   Text Anywhere: Frequently Asked Questions - Sending SMS

4. Check your sent messages to see the status of your message. In TextOnline, there is a Sent Messages option on the left. In TextCampaign, look at View Sent Campaigns.

Templates for Chinese numbers

If you are trying to contact a student with a Chinese number for student support purposes, you can use one of our pre-approved templates.

The content of these templates AND the sender ID associated with them have been approved with Chinese networks. However, there is no guarantee that using these will ensure your message is delivered. Please still check your sent messages.

Template content

1. China - Student Contact. Dear [name], this is your Student Adviser from UoE, [name]. Can you please check your University email and contact me as soon as possible.
2. China - Student Wellbeing. Dear [name], this is your Student Adviser from UoE, [name]. I have been trying to contact you to confirm that you are safe and well. Please contact me as soon as possible.

To use a template

1. Log into TextAnywhere.
2. Select New message.
3. In the Message box, select the arrow next to Select template.
4. Select either China template - the message text area will populate with the template content.
5. Edit the content in brackets to add names, if you wish.
6. IMPORTANT - you must select the 'No reply, send 11 characters' option and input UoEStSupp in the  'No reply, send 11 characters' box. The templates will only work if used with this pre-approved sender ID.
7. Send message.
8. Remember to check your sent message for the message status.

Advice and support

Please contact us if you are having problems sending to international numbers. While it's not possible to put workarounds for every country in place, we will try to put solutions in place to meet your requirements where we can.