Data roaming service not working

[Golfboy]

I am on vacation in California and paid for a travel plan for US Roaming Unlimited Text 15 days and US Roaming Unlimited Talk 15 days.  When I turned on data roaming it put me on AT&T. Sadly I did not receive texts or emails unless I was back on wifi. I then thought perhaps I needed to up my original home plan to ULCW Baseplan 60GB -5G because I was only using 3G at home in Alberta.  That didn’t work either. Why won’t my phone allow texts to be received when I’m not on wifi?

[einsteinbqat]

@GolfboyWhen you are in Canada, your PM plan allows you 3 things: 

1. Texting
2. Voice calls
3. Data

Texting: Texting is the regular SMS. In the iPhone world, that is the GREEN bubble.

Voice call: That's calling using the phone app.

Data: That is anything that needs the Internet like Web surfing, emails, YouTube, Facebook, WhatApps, etc. This also includes iMessage, the BLUE bubble.

Whilst you may see texting as including GREEN and BLUE bubbles, mobile service providers see that as TWO DIFFERENT things. Green is text. Blue is data.

Therefore even if you DID get a plan with text and data. You cannot get BLUE bubble texting. You need a data plan for that. Like other have said you must completely deactivate iMessage on your iPhone to be able to send and receive REGULAR SMS, the GREEN bubbles.

So you either deactivate iMessage whilst you are in Cali or you need to also buy a data plan in addition to your text/talk plan.

[RavingRaven]

@Golfboy 

Originally you purchased the US Roaming talk+text add on but as @Chalupa_Batman has explained your settings in your iPhone were only utilizing iMessage which require mobile data or wifi to send and recieve. Enabling SMS and MMS (which uses mobile data but while in Canada only requires mobile data to be enabled but does not consume it) ensures that your texts are sent and recieved by both Android and iPhone users.

By changing plans you were onto the right idea but you needed to switch to the $65 US/Canada Roaming plan. A 3G, 4G or 5G plan only affects the data speed you recieve vs the network you need use to get service.

I suggest you contact customer support and explain your confusion over what US Roaming add ons/plans you needed to recieve service and what you have learned regarding iMessage vs SMS/MMS texts. Ask them if they can remove the US Roaming add on and switch you to $65 US/Canada Roaming plan. Depending on when your normal renewal would have occurred they may even credit back some of the difference in plan cost.

Send a detailed private message to customer support (CS_Agent) and check your private message box fir a reply by tapping or clicking on your avatar at the top right corner of your screen. Use the link below to send your message.

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/notes/composepage/note-to-user-id/22437

[Chalupa_Batman]

OH. I know why. iPhone uses data for iMessages. You need to go into iMessages and change it to SMS messages. Because you only purchased the talk and text, iPhone uses data for iMessages.

Go into Settings, then scroll down to Messages, then scroll down to Send as SMS and turn off iMessage. Not really sure if you have to restart the phone again but it never hurts. 

[Golfboy]

I have picked T mobile and shut my iPhone off for 30 seconds and turned it back on if that is what you mean by rebooting. But I still can receive texts unless I’m on wifi

[Golfboy]

It appears that I can connect with both AT&T and T-Mobile or at least they both pop up on the top left of my Home Screen. 
There is no problem with voice. I have an iPhone SE and I’m not sure what you mean by “disable your data limiter”. I am not very tech savvy at the age of 69

[softech]

@Golfboy 

Critical part to US roaming depends on T-Mobile/AT&T coverage and whether you can connect successfully onto either network.

If the phone is not connecting to T-Mobile/AT&T, change the Network Connection from Automatic to Manual and select and test both T-Mobile and AT&T and see which one you can connect.

If your issue is with data, make sure your Roaming Mobile data is enabled and you have disabled your mobile data limiter.  Also change your network mode to 4G (and don't try 5G until you can connect and works on 4G)

If your issue is with voice, make sure VoLTE is enabled on the device setting.  And if it does not work, try to change the Network to T-Mobile ONLY, and change  Preferred Network Type or Network Mode to 2G and see if the calls go through.
Also, you can download VoIP app TextNow as a workaround to make calls and text if you have Wifi or if your roaming has data component and data  is working

[Chalupa_Batman]

Hey @Golfboy 

Go to your network settings and pick T-Mobile then reboot. That should work. If you don't know how, just let me know if you have an Android or iPhone.