Inreach SMS not working with CLARO ARGENTINA Carrier

Hi, I’m from Argentina and I have an Inreach Mini. They are 3 major carriers in Argentina. Claro, Movistar and Personal.
I’ve tried sending messages from my Inreach with mixed success:

Emails: works ok.
Movistar SMS: works ok, including replies.
Claro SMS: doesn’t work. I even tried disabling links but still doesn’t work.
Personal SMS: haven’t tried it yet.

The problem is that everyone in my family uses Claro, so in order for my Inreach to be useful beyond the SOS capability, I need Garmin to somehow fix this. The funny thing is that Claro is one of the biggest Carrier in the Americas, and they even sell Inreach Mini in their online store in Mexico. But somehow they are blocking the incoming messages in Argentina.

Hope this get solved soon.

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0 Miguel over 3 years ago

Hi, the same problem with Movistar Chile, Some times work, but only one of three attemps, it is disappointed

0 9373673 over 3 years ago in reply to Miguel

When I was able to receive the sms through Movistar, I could see that the SMS came from an +61 Australian number. I used to live in Australia and I remember having problems sending SMS from Australia to my family in Argentina. Maybe this has something to do.

Anyway I already submitted the support request to Garmin as it says in here:

https://support.garmin.com/en-MY/?faq=2kOiXPTqj1Aaft8qSupb46#:~:text=If%20you%20cannot%20successfully%20send,Troubleshooting%20SMS%20messages%3A&text=Leave%20the%20inReach%20device%20outside,able%20to%20receive%20a%20reply.

Its been a couple of days already but I haven't heard from Garmin back yet.

0 9373673 over 3 years ago in reply to 9373673

A week already and no answer from my support request from Garmin, not even a "We are working on it". I know its not AT&T but at least I was expecting some kind of answer by now.

0 carleson over 3 years ago

Try using this email to sms in the meantime: [email protected]

Source: www.fbbbrown.com/.../

0 9373673 over 3 years ago in reply to carleson

Thanks Carleson, but that was one of the first alternatives that I tried but it no longer works, not even with the newer version which was [email protected]

0 carleson over 3 years ago in reply to 9373673

From your email program does it work to send [email protected] ? If that works then I suggest to go through https://support.garmin.com/ for your model to raise this up because in the sticky on AT&T messaging not working they indicate all other providers are working. If that email to sms doesn't work from your email then I suggest going to Claro to figure out the right formation of the email address and try again.

0 9373673 over 3 years ago in reply to carleson

Thanks Carleson, I already submitted a support request https://support.garmin.com/ 10 days ago with no answer at all from Garmin. Claro stopped supporting [email protected] and [email protected] in 2015.

0 Garmin-Andrew over 3 years ago in reply to 9373673

Hello, I'm sorry you haven't heard back from Product Support yet. Please reply to the PM I sent you and I'm happy to help look into the request you submitted.

0 EduardoSG over 3 years ago in reply to Garmin-Andrew

Hi,

I am fron Argentina and have the same problem with SMS, but not restricted to Claro.

I am in contact with someone in support. Up to now, we could not find the cause, until I detected several posts in forums like this one, that suggest that this might be a general problem and not a personal one.

I have sent over 10 messages up to now, with only 2 succesful attempts.

Those two succesful attempts were to a Movistar number (my own phone) But other messages sent to my phone failed, so Movistar is not 100% working either.

My other messages went to different Claro phone numbers mainly, and one message to a Personal phone number (as the OP stated we have 3 main carriers in Argentina: Movistar, Claro and Personal) All unsuccessful

One thing I discovered is that number 9 after +54, seems to be not necessary but it does not harm either. I have read that for phone calls you need to put it but for SMS it was optional and worked both ways. The two succesful Inreach meesages I received seem to validate this, as one was sent to a +54 9 11 number and the other one to a +54 11 number (same number)

So, hoping Garmin can solve this problems with Movistar, Claro and Personal, so as to make the Inreach useful.

I usually need to use it in areas of low cell phone coverage. And I have to communicate to a vehicle that should be nearby, also in areas of poor coverage. That is why the email solution is not good for me. Because as I understand, communication from our mobile phones is performed via two different "channels": voice and SMS work on the older technology but more vast covered area, and data (internet navigation and emails) work on the newer but less covered areas. So SMS will work in many places where email or MapShare will be unavailable.

Just a quicknote. Some friends have SPOT equipments, and they seem to have no problems with SMS, although I will check with them if they have tried them intensively (different carriers, etc.)

I myself have an old SPOT. I changed to Garmin because I wanted two way communication, and I thought Garmin would give a better service than SPOT (it is more expensive by the way) I would hate having to go back to SPOT, to rely at least on one-way SMS messaging

Best regards, Eduardo

0 twolpert over 3 years ago in reply to EduardoSG

First off, be sure you actually sent a PM to Garmin-Andrew.

I think you have it straight, but just to be clear -- The OUTBOUND (from iR device to the outside world) handling of messages is the same regardless of the final delivery mechanism. That is, it's the same when sending to email, SMS, or MapShare. The INBOUND (from Garmin servers to the target address) handling does vary. SMS travels via the cell network in much the same manner as voice. Email, of course, does require a data connection to retrieve the email.