The sender in the United States must make sure that the Irish number is formatted correctly. To avoid errors, one should put the contact in the addressbook rather than enter the number manually. It should be a number which will work when you dial it. Use "+" for the international access code rather than "011" for GSM phones. CDMA phones must enter the actual digits.

I am a U.S. expat living in Ireland. I have used two different wireless phones (Nokia and Samsung) and two different service providers (vodaphone and Metro). While I can send text messages from Europe that are received by friends and family in the U.S., nothing that anyone sends to me from the U.S. (irrespective or phone type or provider) reaches me on my Irish number. As a workaround, I signed up for a U.S. Truphone number on another phone to which people can send text messages. That's cumbersome as I use the qwerty keyboard on my Irish phone to send and have to keep another phone charged to receive. So, far, the Irish providers say it's not on their end if I can receive text messages from others in Europe. Queries to ATT & others in the U.S. have been useless. Can anyone out there give me a clue as to why I cannot receive U.S. text messages on a Euro number? Thanks.