topic Re: US Roamimg When will volte be introduced? in Get Support

US Roamimg Volte and alaska coverage

christinand — Sun, 05 Mar 2023 21:41:08 GMT

So it sounds like US roaming won’t work in alaska from another thread i read. Any eta when public mobile will introduce volte? It would be a shame to switch from public mobile just because of this issue. I have an older 2017 samsung a5 and i’m not 100% sure an esim would work. I don’t go until end of june so i figure there is time for public moble to introduce the volte.

US Roamimg in alaska

christinand — Sat, 04 Mar 2023 17:52:43 GMT

So it sounds like US roaming won’t work in alaska from another thread i read is that correct? Any eta when public mobile will introduce volte? It would be a shame to switch from public mobile just because of this issue. I have an older 2017 samsung a5 and i’m not 100% sure an esim would work. I don’t go until end of june so i figure there is time for public moble to introduce the volte.

Re: US Roamimg in alaska

softech — Sat, 04 Mar 2023 18:01:39 GMT

@christinand you are correct, many users confirmed roaming does not work in Alaska

Re: US Roamimg When will volte be introduced?

softech — Sat, 04 Mar 2023 18:03:48 GMT

@christinand VoLTE won't help with Alaska situation

The problem with Alaska is that there is no T-Mobile signal there at all, data and voice

Re: US Roamimg When will volte be introduced?

christinand — Sat, 04 Mar 2023 18:04:47 GMT

Thanks, so is the only option to get an esim then?

Re: US Roamimg When will volte be introduced?

christinand — Sat, 04 Mar 2023 18:05:53 GMT

Also, this is weird as i used the us data add on 3 years ago when in alaska

Re: US Roamimg When will volte be introduced?

softech — Sat, 04 Mar 2023 18:07:26 GMT

@christinand get local mobile sim that works in Alaska. T-Mobile has no network there. You have to check first

Re: US Roamimg When will volte be introduced?

softech — Sat, 04 Mar 2023 18:08:53 GMT

@christinand

check this

https://www.rvmobileinternet.com/guides/north-to-alaska-mobile-internet/

Re: US Roamimg When will volte be introduced?

christinand — Sat, 04 Mar 2023 18:16:28 GMT

Thanks. It sounds like gci is a partner of tmobile so one would think it would work. But maybe the problem is gci is 5g. Thanks i’ll have to do some research.

Re: US Roamimg When will volte be introduced?

softech — Sat, 04 Mar 2023 18:23:16 GMT

@christinand yes, T-Mobile customers can free roam on GCI. But we roam on T-Mobile and we are not included in this deal T-Mobile has with GCI

Re: US Roamimg When will volte be introduced?

Dunkman — Sat, 04 Mar 2023 18:25:02 GMT

@christinand

Public mobile should introduce VoLTE by June. Public mobile is actively pursuing this feature. Hopefully, VolTE should be available to customers within 1-2 months. We were told within the first quarter of 2023.

Whether VoLTE will help with roaming in Alaska, not too sure. T mobile has no presence in Alaska. AT&T mobile has limited coverage.

Here is an older thread:

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Get-Support/Phone-not-working-in-Alaska-US/td-p/856516/page/3

Here is the coverage map:

https://www.publicmobile.ca/en/on/coverage

Re: US Roamimg in alaska

BKNS27 — Sat, 04 Mar 2023 18:25:33 GMT

@christinand

No idea when Volte will be introduced on PM.

If you are on a cruise, there should be wifi on the cruise ship.

Re: US Roamimg When will volte be introduced?

christinand — Sat, 04 Mar 2023 18:26:45 GMT

As i said it worked in 2019/so i don’t know what the problem is now unless its 5g.

Re: US Roamimg When will volte be introduced?

christinand — Sat, 04 Mar 2023 18:46:08 GMT

Thanks. I see my phone doesn’ support volte so i’ll need a new phone. If the phone worked in alaska in 2019 (i’m on a cruise ship) then it seems it would work with volte. I read the article the other mayor posted and it sounds like there is limited tmobile coverage. Thanks both for all this useful information!

Re: US Roamimg When will volte be introduced?

christinand — Sat, 04 Mar 2023 19:51:52 GMT

After reading about volt it sounds like it is a more voice over solution. Will it still help with data and messaging? Will volte work in the us if my phone doesn't support 5g?

Re: US Roamimg When will volte be introduced?

softech — Sat, 04 Mar 2023 19:55:35 GMT

@christinand first VoLTE won't help your roaming trouble in Alaska.

Your roaming issue is that we cannot connect to T-Mobile's partner in Alaska, no data or connection at all

VoLTE only allows voice over LTE. So, your phone that does not support 5G can take advantage to use the LTE/4G network to receive voice calls in states that we can get roaming (again not Alaska). The reason we need VoLTE for voice is that PM uses only 3G for voice in Canada (which is ok for us), but US has no 3G network anymore, so, for voice roaming , we now need to use the outdated T-Mobile 2G network. If VoLTE is enabled, we can then have much more relaible voice service in US.

Re: US Roamimg When will volte be introduced?

dust2dust — Sat, 04 Mar 2023 20:27:46 GMT

First of all, that A5 is a bit of an antique and no longer takes security updates for internet security.

I don't remember if AT&T allowed roaming for us in Alaska. Alaska seemed to have only become an issue when the 3G stopped so maybe AT&T worked for us at that time while maybe T-Mobile did not. Currently, we can't even connect to AT&T anywhere though and definitely T-Mobile not working for us there.

So what we have for talk is 3G for us in Canada. 2G only with T-Mobile. Text works on both 3G and 4G for us. Text also works on 2G with T-Mobile and also 4G. Data works on 4G all around and also 3G here. Again, no AT&T.

5G is an unrelated matter. 4G will be with us for some time yet.

VoLTE uses 4G (the LTE part obviously). We don't yet have that here. Maybe perhaps roaming might open it up some day even before it might be opened up here. I don't know. Maybe that might bring back AT&T. I don't know. Maybe that would open up roaming in Alaska. I don't know.

Re: US Roamimg When will volte be introduced?

hTideGnow — Sat, 04 Mar 2023 20:31:22 GMT

hi @Dunkman thanks for the great news about VoLTE in June. I thought we had it yesterday already with the voice problem 🤣

Re: US Roamimg When will volte be introduced?

christinand — Sat, 04 Mar 2023 20:36:59 GMT

Thanks softech, putting aside the alaska question, should data and messaging work on 2g if your phone doesn't support 5g?

Re: US Roamimg When will volte be introduced?

dust2dust — Sat, 04 Mar 2023 20:39:20 GMT

5G is not a part of this discussion. We can only do 2G, 3G, 4G. No phone is 5G-ONLY. Perhaps review what I wrote earlier.