Android: Setting The SMSC (SMS Message Centre) in Android ICS

A combination of being in a rush and fat fingers whilst in the “Testing” menu (*#*#4636#*#*) led to me deleting the SMS Message Centre Number from my Google Nexus S phone.

It runs a custom ICS – either Apex or AndroidME – and there is no “Message Centre” setting under the Messaging App.

So, scrolling to the bottom in the Testing menu -> Phone Information you can see the “SMSC: ” field.

Tip: DON’T PRESS UPDATE, PRESS “REFRESH” TO SEE THE CURRENT SETTING!!!

The actual SMSC number is: +447785016005, however inputting this into the field and hitting update just produces “update error”. The issue is that this needs to be translated into PDU format (Protocol Description Unit) and you can do that here: http://www.twit88.com/home/utility/sms-pdu-encode-decode.

For the number above, this turns out to be 0791447758100650 which is what you would hope to see on your working UK Vodafone droid.

For some people, entering the PDU number above into your SMSC field in the testing menu and pressing “update” will have the desired effect but for me, the “update” button won’t work unless you have a “+” in front of the number which is no use at all.

The solution? Take the SIM card out and stick it in a non-android phone (I used a Blackberry), go to the messageing app, settings, message centre number and enter the real number, i.e. +447785016005.

Save, exit, power off, replace SIM into Android phone, job done.

Hope this helps someone ..

References:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=926771