topic Only able to send SMS up to 3 characters long! in SIM cards & Porting

Only able to send SMS up to 3 characters long!

g1t1n1 — Wed, 07 Jan 2026 14:15:58 GMT

Hi,

Any message I send which is longer than 3 characters does not get through. It shows as sent but the other person does not receive it.

I have tried the SIM in another phone and it is the same (still only sends if 3 chars or less).

I have tried another EE SIM in my phone and it works.

I have ordered a replacement SIM from EE and it still only sends up to 3 characters!

Any sugesstions?

Thanks.

Re: Only able to send SMS up to 3 characters long!

bristolian — Wed, 07 Jan 2026 16:20:18 GMT

An unusual case, a few initial questions jump out at me for starters...

1: How long have you had this problem, or have you never been able to send texts longer than 3 characters?

2: What exactly happens when you try? You mention twice that "it only sends" if ❤️ characters, but also "it shows as sent" - this seems contradictory.

3: And if the message shows as sent, have you tried sending to yourself and see if you receive it?

Re: Only able to send SMS up to 3 characters long!

g1t1n1 — Wed, 07 Jan 2026 18:07:18 GMT

1. Since before xmas, yes it used to work.

2. The message appears to send normally but is not recevied by the recipient.

3. It is the same whether I send to my number or another number.

Re: Only able to send SMS up to 3 characters long!

bristolian — Wed, 07 Jan 2026 18:32:36 GMT

Point 2 is the crucial one for me. If your phone says "message sent", then you can only assume the text has been submitted to the SMSc and acknowledged.

EE-CS have access to the SMSc logs and should be able to identify the reason for non-delivery if you can cite some timed & dated examples. You'll need to contact EE-CS on 150 from your mobile to pursue this. If you can perhaps sandwich a long-text (which you expect to fail) in-between 2 working ones (which you expect to work), then all the better.

To avoid doubt, the heart emoji in my previous post appears to be the forum software interpreting my "< 3" comment which I've now added a space to...