Last month Telstra launched its SMS Over Wi-Fi service. It was finally rolled out after some users weren’t able to install COVIDSafe, but it’s something rural customers have wanted for years. Despite the successful, some users have been reporting issues over the past few weeks.
“For at least the last several days this service is no longer working. Again we cannot receive or send SMS over Wi-Fi,” Telstra customer Ian Delaney said to Gizmodo Australia over email.
Delaney confirmed that other users in his area, East Gippsland, had also lost the service.
“I cannot tell you the exact date it stopped working but it has not been working for at least the last four days,” Delaney said in an email on June 7.
The Better Internet For Rural, Regional And Remote Australia (BIRRR) organisation also confirmed some reported issues with SMS Over Wi-Fi.
“We have had a couple who have had to ring Telstra, generally with Samsung phones,” said a BIRRR spokesperson in an email to Gizmodo Australia.
Delaney received a response from Telstra’s complaints team on June 15 after his local member, Darren Chester, got involved.
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What happened to SMS Over Wi-Fi
It has now been discovered that there is an issue with SMS Over Wi-Fi for some Android users on the Telstra network.
“The issue was triggered by a firmware change to update the Android Security Patch level in May for a number of devices,” said a Telstra spokeperson in an email to Gizmodo Australia on June 19.
At this stage, we believe it is impacting the Samsung Galaxy A30, Galaxy S10 family and the open market/non Telstra variants of the Galaxy S9 family.”
Gizmodo Australia has asked Telstra whether this issue is impacting any other Android devices or iPhones.
The good news is a fix has already been set in place.
“The vendor has now re-pushed the SMS over Wi-Fi update to those devices – all customers need to is accept the update as they did the first time,” said a Telstra spokesperson over email.
So if you have encountered this problem at all and have one of the above devices, check for an update.