If the sms function worked on icq for me, it would make life so much easier, not to mention cheaper.

Does anyone else succesfully use it?

Any network, any number, and i always get network cannot accept, or message sent, but it never gets there

I have emailed icq about this a few times over the years, but never got a response.

Now O2 are limiting web based sms messages, and my mobile charges have gone up to 10p a message, a fun and cheap method of communicating is turning a bit expensive.

If you text alot buy a pay as you go Genie sim.

300 free text a month messages (worth £30) to any network and free wap. All you have to do is top up £10 a month. You can use the £10 on calls. I sell them if you are interested in one.

When it was a new feature to ICQ I used it quite a bit, both sending and recieving were fine. I've not tried it recently though as it went rapidly downhill a while ago, and I've just decided that 10p to text my mates every now and again isn't that bad. I probably spend about £2.50 maximum per month on my phone

[edit] I just tried to send myself a message via ICQ - it told me that the maessage had been delivered via Vodafone (my network) but it hasn't been sent to my phone yet.
Last edited by dodgygeeza : 03-07-2002 at 17:24

ICQ sms died a long time ago for me... dont work for me at all, well not one 2 one/T-mobile network.

I just use Genies/O2s free SMS service get 600 sms per month free but u can only use it on PC naturally.

If u re-register via a different phone u can get 600 more

I text often so require that many

Orange is the only network ICQ seems to be working reliably with at the moment. Haven't had any delivery reports from it in a while tho.

I am happy with my phone and package, so i dont need that to change.

I guess i will have to stick with o2.co.uk for sending mesg's, but sometimes they take hours to be delivered

This is now limited to 100 messages per month

yeah, i just noticed that... bummer.
Altho you can buy them at 02.co.uk for a 'competitive' rate.. if i'm paying, might as well use my reliable phone!

greed is really gonna kill of text messaging. I like it, but am not going to pay over twice as much as i used to.

Yep figures 100 sms is not enuff id proberly do 100 sms within 1 night

Ill just have to re-register about 10x which sux.

I understand how greedy these networks are they all spotted how SMS was free on PC, and since it was a good thing they stoppped it. Most Free SMS websites are only a puny 5 sms or 10 max.

Genie was top todate but can tell soon they will also be doing 5-10 sms per day.

I heard from a friend, who contacted Orange about the ICQ sms service, that they and other networks were blocking ICQ sms because they saw it as unsolicited spam.

More like they are all losing money if people use a free service to access their networks instead of paying the sms cost

JC

I guess it's only a matter of time before O2 reduce their PAYG mobile monthly allowance of 300 free texts to an 100. I send, on average, around 15 SMS per day, so It's going to hit me hard when it happens.

The best/fastest service ive spotted so far is AOL.

In the browser u can send as many sms as u want to any network, fastest ive used before also.

But likely AOL will soon cash in on it.

I still say there should be a £10 monthly sub, with SMS free, for that matter same on voice calls

Just like BT/NTL went un-metered and just one monthly fee it solved alot of problems.

How longs an sms now? 150 characters? Take 8 bits per character (you could get away with 7, maybe 6), and that uses 1200 bits. Whats a mobile phones badwidth? 3000bits/second+

They charge you 10 pence for half a second of talk time - £6 a minute. Yet people still send them, and have entire conversations on them, costing a couple of quid between them. Personally I just phone up

But I assume you have to be an AOL-user to use this - No thanks, I'll stick with my ntl CM and pay for my texts

You can send free text messages from Orange You have to register with them & you can only send 30 messages a month & you can't receive any messages. But it works with any network!

Yeah u gotta be an AOL member...

Genies still the best, 100 free per month, but watch em cut it to 50 proberly....

UK Goverment is so silly, we really need proper standards on stuff like this so companies/people cant ripp off UK residents.