Sophie
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You have a number starting with 01, 04, a +34 9… or the office number of a contact abroad. You open it in Messages, type your text, hit send. No error appears. And no reply ever comes. The rule is brutal: a text message sent to a landline is, in almost every case, never delivered — and your phone won't tell you. The message is accepted by your carrier, then dropped along the way.
Updated 22 October 2026.
Can you send a text message to a landline number?
Technically no, unless the recipient's carrier has set up a specific "SMS to landline" service. SMS is a function of the GSM mobile network: it travels through the signalling channel between the handset, the message centre (SMSC) and the destination mobile line. A landline, by contrast, has no SMSC, no IMSI and no short-message delivery mechanism.
Here is what actually happens when you hit send:
- Your phone hands the message to your carrier's SMSC (Orange, SFR, Bouygues Telecom, Free Mobile or the MVNO hosted by one of them).
- The SMSC queries the network to locate the called number.
- The number is not a mobile line: there is no reachable destination for a short message.
- The message is dropped, silently in most cases.
That is why the absence of an error proves nothing. We covered this in our article on SMS delivery receipts and what they really tell you: the "sent" tick only means your carrier took charge of the message, not that a recipient received it.
How can you spot a landline number before sending?
In France it's simple: landline numbers start with 01, 02, 03, 04 and 05 (geographic) and 09 (non-geographic, often a home router). Mobiles start with 06 and 07. Arcep, which manages the French numbering plan, has also opened new ranges in 06 and 07 — a detail that matters when you're unsure about a recently issued number.
Abroad there is no universal rule, and that's where mistakes pile up:
| Country | Dialling code | Landline / mobile marker |
|---|---|---|
| France | +33 | Landline: 1 to 5 and 9 — Mobile: 6 and 7 |
| Spain | +34 | Landline: starts with 8 or 9 — Mobile: 6 or 7 |
| Italy | +39 | Landline: starts with 0 — Mobile: 3 |
| Morocco | +212 | Landline: 5 — Mobile: 6 or 7 |
| United Kingdom | +44 | Mobile: 7 (often 74-79) |
| United States / Canada | +1 | No marker: identical area codes for landlines and mobiles |
| Germany | +49 | Mobile: 15, 16, 17 |
North America is the classic trap: in +1, nothing visually distinguishes a landline from a mobile. A text sent to the office number of a relative living in Montreal or Chicago therefore disappears without the slightest clue. Same logic for Spain: writing to a Movistar contact on a number starting with +34 9 means writing to a landline.
And if the number is a mobile but badly formatted, the problem is a completely different one — that's the subject of our article on the international format for foreign numbers.
Are there cases where texting a landline does work?
Yes, three situations, all of them depending on the recipient's carrier — never on yours.
The text message converted into a voice message
Some fixed-line carriers offer a "text to speech" service: the short message received for a landline is converted into a synthetic voice, and the landline rings to read the text aloud. This type of service has existed at several European carriers, mostly in the 2000s and 2010s, and survives very unevenly depending on the country and the contract. In France it is not a standard landline feature: don't count on it.
SMS to landline in the business world
Business messaging platforms (A2P, "application to person") sometimes offer an "SMS to landline" option: the message is routed through a dedicated channel and delivered by voice call, by email or in a web interface. It is a paid service, subscribed to by the sender, and aimed at companies sending notifications in bulk. A private individual has no access to it from the Messages app.
"Landlines" that are actually mobiles
The last case is the most frequent and the most misleading: a landline number hosted on a SIM card. 4G/5G routers, some business plans and backup routers can host a geographic number on a mobile subscription. The text message then arrives… in a piece of equipment with no screen, where nobody will ever read it. We described this kind of equipment in our guide to fixed internet over 4G/5G.
Am I charged for that lost text message?
Often yes, and that's the second bad habit to correct.
A message taken in charge by your SMSC is deducted from your plan or billed, even if delivery subsequently fails. From France to a French number, it makes no difference when your plan includes unlimited texts. But to a foreign number, sending falls outside the plan in almost every French offer: you pay for a message that will never reach anyone. Repeated five or six times "just to be sure", the cost becomes visible on the bill.
Two practical consequences:
- Don't keep trying. If a landline number doesn't reply to the first message, the tenth won't get through any better.
- Check your usage details. "Out-of-plan SMS" entries appear in your online account under the heading "international SMS" or similar. How these charges work is detailed in our article on who pays when you reply to a text received from abroad.
What to do instead? The five solutions that work
1. Ask for your contact's mobile number
Obvious, but it's the only 100% reliable method. A mobile number correctly formatted in international form (country code, then the national number without the leading zero) will receive a text message anywhere a network exists.
2. Just call
For a landline, a phone call remains the intended channel. When travelling, if your plan charges more for a call to a foreign landline than for a message, remember that the message will never be read: the saving is an illusion. For long calls to a family landline, a wired headset with a microphone avoids dropouts and the fatigue of listening on speakerphone.
3. Use email
Many landlines are business or family lines paired with an email address that is checked far more often. For a message that needs to leave a written record (an address, an arrival time, a flight number), email beats SMS: it doesn't get lost in a list of conversations.
4. Internet messaging apps, if your contact is equipped
WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram and RCS all run on accounts tied to a mobile number, not to a landline. So they don't get around the problem: they just move it. On the other hand, if your contact has a smartphone as well as their landline, this is the cheapest route from abroad. On a longer stay, a large-screen tablet makes these apps usable by an elderly relative who can no longer comfortably read on a smartphone.
5. Fax and post, for official bodies
A special case: some numbers in the 01-05 range belong to fax machines, still used by medical practices, notaries and public bodies abroad. A text message sent to a fax will produce nothing. If a written record is required, registered post remains the only legally enforceable medium — and a paper address book is surprisingly useful when a phone has been factory reset.
How can you tell whether a number is mobile or landline when you don't know?
Three checks, in this order:
- The national prefix. Compare it with the table above. For a country not listed, the local regulator publishes its numbering plan; the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) also makes the list of national numbering plans available.
- The context. A number on a business card labelled "Tel." or "Office" is almost always a landline; "Mobile", "Móvil", "Cell" or "Handy" indicate a mobile.
- The call test. A landline-style ringtone, a business voicemail or a switchboard confirm that no text message is possible. Conversely, a mobile carrier's voicemail indicates a line that can receive texts.
One often overlooked detail: number portability blurs the markers. In France, a number keeps its original range when switching carriers, but not necessarily its technical nature. An 09 assigned to a home router remains a landline; an 06 ported to a machine-to-machine line may no longer have a screen behind it.
And the other way round: can a landline send me a text message?
Yes, and it regularly comes as a surprise. You can receive a message showing a number starting with 01 or 09 as the sender: this is almost always a business text message sent from a platform that has chosen to display the company's switchboard number as the sender ID. Think medical appointments, delivery confirmations, bank reminders.
Two things to remember:
- Replying to these messages is generally pointless. The number displayed is not a line capable of receiving a text message; your reply goes nowhere, exactly as described above, and may be charged to you.
- A displayed sender number is not proof of identity. Sender ID spoofing is precisely the mechanism exploited by fraudulent campaigns. If you have any doubt about a message claiming to come from your bank or a public body, call back the official number on your contract or on the organisation's official website, never the one in the message.
As for receiving messages from abroad, remember that receiving a text message in France is always free, including from the other side of the world: it's the sender who pays for delivery.
In summary
| Situation | Likely outcome |
|---|---|
| Text to a French 01-05 or 09 number | Not delivered, silently |
| Text to a foreign landline (+34 9, +39 0, +1…) | Not delivered, often billed outside the plan |
| Text to a landline number hosted on a SIM (4G router) | Delivered, but never read |
| Text to a landline with a text-to-speech service | Read aloud, depending solely on the recipient's carrier |
| Text received from a landline number | Common: business platform, reply impossible |
The habit to keep: before texting a number you don't know, look at the prefix. Thirty seconds of checking saves you a lost message, a pointless wait and sometimes a line on your bill. To send a written message to a mobile without using your plan, you can also send a text from our service and check the sending rates.
Frequently asked questions
Can you send a text message to a number starting with 01?
No, in practice. Numbers from 01 to 05 and 09 designate French landlines, which have no SMS delivery mechanism. The message is accepted by your carrier and then dropped, usually without any error message.
Why doesn't my text to a landline show any error?
Because the "sent" tick only confirms that your carrier's message centre took charge of it. The delivery failure happens further along in the network and isn't reported back to your phone in most cases.
Is a text message to a landline charged?
Yes, most of the time. The message is counted as soon as it is taken in charge. To a French number with an unlimited-SMS plan, it costs nothing extra; to a foreign landline, sending is billed outside the plan in almost every French offer.
How can I tell whether a foreign number is a mobile?
Check the national prefix: 6 or 7 in Spain, 3 in Italy, 6 or 7 in Morocco, 7 in the United Kingdom, 15/16/17 in Germany. In +1 (United States, Canada) there is no marker at all: only your contact can confirm.
I received a text from a number starting with 09, can I reply?
No. It was sent from a business platform displaying a switchboard number. Your reply will not be received. Use the channel indicated in the message or the organisation's official number.
