IPhone3g Cannot send SMS Messages without entering phone number w/area code

Question

i get an error 1121611611 "please enter 10 digit number". The contact i messaged number is 10 digits in my contacts. I hope i dont have to re-enter the phone number with area code for every text message. any solution to this problem, is there a way to automatically include the area code on text messaging? The contact has the same area code as me.
Thanks

Answer 1

I am having the same problem as well...it seems that for dummies like me who never spent much time texting before I got the iphone that I did not know you had to enter a person's area code also to text them (hence the 10 digit error message).
That said, I, like you, put in the area code and got things to work--problem is when you save to Favorites. So here is what I discovered on my own while chatting with an Apple tech support rep: When you save to Favorites, if the person you are calling/texting has your same area code, the program then deletes the area code prior to dialing and you can't get out. I gave the tip to the tech--she said she would forward it to the appropriate folks. It seems they need to slightly change the code so that Favorites does not eliminate the area code on local calls/texts. I also talked to ATT who said that ideally one should always use the area code for all calls--not sure why as it works just fine to not enter it, but that is what she said.
So my workaround for now is to not have my wife in Favorites so that I can text her--seems to work ok if just dialing from Contacts as long as you have the area code stored with the number in Contacts.
Hope this works for you as it did for me--hope they will address it and fix it.