I've been using an LG K9 phone and USA roaming talk and text has worked in WA, OR, and HI. Now I bought an LG Tribute Empire phone which is almost identical and also runs Android 8.1.0, same as the K9. It often gives the message "Please wait while we activate your device for network service. This may take several minutes. At first this message was up for several minutes before it gives the message "Activation incomplete. Please contact your service provider to configure your device for service." After I press CONTINUE, it works. After about 2 days of being frustrated with this message almost every time I turn on the phone or press the button on the back to light up the screen, this message would still come up, but only last for 10 seconds. Now that I returned from a brief trip to USA, the message comes up for several minutes, which is a severe inconvenience. Contrary to the 2nd message, the phone does work. In Canada.
On two recent trips to USA, the phone would not work for voice. Yes, we did buy USA Roaming. It would not receive or initiate voice calls. However text messages did work, sending and receiving. The first trip was driving between Vancouver BC and Kirkland, WA which is near Seattle. There are many cellphone towers in this area with all carriers. At first when using the K9, I would have to go to select a network operator and choose T-Mobile before it would work. Or sometimes it would just start working but not for at least a half hour of having been in USA. But this Tribute Empire phone doesn't give me a way to scan network operators and choose one, even though it runs the same OS as the K9. It also doesn't give me a choice of manual or automatic selection of network operators. When I press the Network Operator setting after "Mobile Networks" it just displays 0.0.0.0. The K9 lets me choose the mode and the operator after it spends almost a minute "searching" for operators.
The second trip to USA was Point Roberts which has a Verizon tower. It was there for several hours. It could send and receive text messages but not receive or place voice calls, unless I was in a part of Point Roberts that was in the coverage area of Public Mobile - then it would declare Public Mobile as the carrier and work.
I tried to submit a ticket to Public Mobile, but Public Mobile makes it severely difficult to do this. After a search I found a way to submit a ticket, but it did not ask me anything about the problem and didn't let me enter a description of the problem. So it appears that Public Mobile's MO is to try to get its paying customers to answer other paying customers' questions and only when that fails will a Public Mobile employ possibly respond...or not...I don't know yet.
So, can someone here give me a clue about what Public Mobile has to do to make this phone fully work on its network and while roaming in USA? Or if it's a phone failure, is it a individually defective phone, or is it some unchangeable property of the LG Tribute Empire that renders it incompatible with Public Mobile? Thanks!
