In the U.S. without a plan, why is my cell going straight to voicemail in Canada?

[Maiden]

Sorry this may be confusing. I am in the U.S. and let my $20 every 10 day plan run out. (its ridiculous) because I have a home phone here in the U.S.

When anyone tries to call my cell phone however, in Canada, it goes straight to voicemail. Why doesn't it ring for them a few times first? 

When a phone goes straight to voicemail its usually because a person is talking on it when you call them, I am not talking on my phone. It doesn't work down here.

I'm still paying for my Public Mobile plan in Canada while I'm down here (or they'd cut me off) so why isn't my phone ringing for a person to hear when they try to call my cell?

[Nezgar]

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@darlicious wrote:

I was unsure how voicemail would work in the US. Can the OP call forward the pm phone number in the US to a Canadian phone #? If they can I wonder what would happen if they suspended via lost/stolen before the roaming talk add on expires

I don't have personal experience yet, but it seems from various accounts I've read on these forums that call forwarding doesn't work in the USA even with a TALK roaming add-on -- it will only go to public mobile voicemail. (So will disable YouMail voicemail for those using it like me) but I'm not 100% sure what happens when you don't have a talk addon at all - it seems from OP that it doesn't go to voicemail at all, and incoming calls just fail... But an additional new complication to that could be if the phone is in an area with LTE only and no working 3G or 2G the network is unable to respond with the message to divert to voicemail.

[darlicious]

@Nezgar 

Thanks for confirming that.....I was unsure how voicemail would work in the US. Can the OP call forward the pm phone number in the US to a Canadian phone #? If they can I wonder what would happen if they suspended via lost/stolen before the roaming talk add on expires?

@Maiden 

Your only other option would be to have a trusted friend either pick up a pm Sim card for you or them order one from pm online (currently BOGO free) and have the sim card(s) shipped to them in Canada. Once they recieve the Sim card they can send you the Sim card # and you swap it out using email for 2FA verification. Once swapped they can put the new Sim card in their phone to connect to pm and voicemail will be restored. You could also get them to call forward your unreachable call forwarding setting to a voip phone number as I described earlier and you could also recieve incoming pm voice calls. They can remove the Sim card and either hold onto it or ship it to you. Just don't put it in a working phone rather put it in a safe and secure place until you return to Canada.

Edit:

Or pm Sim cards can be ordered via Canadian Cell Supplies for $5.99. Free shipping via Canada Post or free pick up in the GTA or $5 express shipping to 26 cities in Canada.

[dust2dust]

@Nezgar, @darlicious - This user started another thread and then came back to their much earlier one.

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Get-Support/Calling-my-cell-from-the-U-S/m-p/922569

I'm not entirely certain where their sim is.

Certainly they should be able to call their number depending on the long distance capabilities of the service their calling from.

[Nezgar]

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@Maiden wrote:

I do not want to suspend my service because I want people in Canada to be able to call my cell and leave a message and I want to be able to call my cell from a phone in the U.S. to GET those voicemail messages.

Is there a reason why no one can call my cell phone no matter where I am physically? I am paying for it.

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If you removed your SIM before leaving Canada, and your phone with active SIM never registered with a USA tower, then you would continue to be able to take voicemails while you are away, and then you could call in from a phone in the US to receive those messages.

BUT... since your phone has registered with a US cellular network, and your account has no roaming plan, the calls likely dead end there - and cannot then be routed to voicemail since you don't have an active talk roaming add-on. It's just a quirk of the public mobile prepaid system...

So now that you are in the US, I think your only workaround to allow your phone number to receive voicemails until you return to Canada is to purchase a US Roaming TALK add-on, even if your phone isn't in an area of the US where the talk feature actually works, which only works on T-Mobile network where they still have 2G coverage...

[darlicious]

@Maiden 

Anyone can call your cell phone and leave a message. Then you can call your pm phone number (you can do this for free with a voip provider app like textnow or fongo just choose a Canadian phone number.) Dial your phone number. When voicemail picks up press "*" and enter your voicemail PIN #. You now have full access to your voicemail services.

In future before you leave Canada you can call forward your pm phone # to your voip phone # and remove the pm Sim card so it does not connect to a US cell tower (specifically we believe the 2G network is the network to avoid in the US.) As long as your phone doesn't connect to the network your voice services will continue to be forwarded to your voip phone number which works for free on wifi or uses mobile data with a local Sim card.

You can also use YouMail to get voicemail messages transcribed and sent to your email. ( @Nezgar can explain this better than I can.) You can also try an experiment to see if your voicemail stays active if you suspend your account via lost/stolen** on or before midnight eastern on Day 30 of your plan cycle. It was working this way in Canada last time I fully tested but I am unable to test again for another month and I can't test whether it works in the US.

**This does cause a glitch with $$ rewards not applying automatically upon renewal. Customer support contact is required after you pay and reactivate your plan ideally by day 85 at the latest as there are some issues with paying and reactivating with an account suspended via lost/stolen and carrying a balance in available funds. Plan accordingly.

Or acquire the grandfathered $60 US/Canada Roaming plan. I know someone who has one? 😀

[softech]

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@Maiden wrote:

Why would 'they', ME need a U.S. add-on when I'm paying for my cell phone? Anyone should be able to call my cell phone in Canada no matter where my body is in the world correct?

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@Maiden   it is true that anyone can call you and either your phone ring or got routed to Voicemail

did you login to My Account and confirm if your account is active?

[dust2dust]

As I asked in your other recent thread, where is the Public sim?

[Maiden]

Why would 'they', ME need a U.S. add-on when I'm paying for my cell phone? Anyone should be able to call my cell phone in Canada no matter where my body is in the world correct?

[Maiden]

I do not want to suspend my service because I want people in Canada to be able to call my cell and leave a message and I want to be able to call my cell from a phone in the U.S. to GET those voicemail messages.

Is there a reason why no one can call my cell phone no matter where I am physically? I am paying for it.

[Nezgar]

Since your roaming plan ended, and your phone is still in the US, the public mobile servers know that your phone is not allowed to receive calls anymore. As such, the network will not even try to ring your phone, and immediately route the call to your voicemail. This is the same thing that will happen if you turn off your phone or it is out of the coverage area even in Canada.

You may want to change the announcement in your voicemail to tell people the number they can reach you at in the USA. You can call your PM number from another phone and when the greeting starts playing press * and enter your password.

Or, if you really want people to hear some rings, instead of the $20 roaming plan for Talk+Text+Data, you could cosnider purchasing just the "US Roaming - Unlimited Talk (10-day) - $8.00" and then your phone will work for calls.

Also consider that if you are there for an extended period and your renewal date is upcoming soon, you might want to downgrade to the $15 plan, since none of the extra benefits of higher plans benefit you while in the USA. If you do this, make sure to schedule it for the next renewal date, not for immediate change.

[darlicious]

@Maiden 

Since you already have a US service and you don't want to continue to pay for pm roaming add ons it's best that you suspend your pm service while you are away. This can be done for up to 90 days before pm will cancel and deactivate your account.

Most customers will reactivate around day 85 to ensure if they encounter a problem they can contact customer support to rectify the issue before day 90. If you are in the US for longer than 120 days ( 30 days of paid service+90 days of suspended service) you may opt to change your plan to the $15 plan if you are not on a grandfathered plan or a plan with promotional bonuses that you may lose by changing your plan.

Since currently your phone defaults to voicemail when callers call your pm number suspending via lost/stolen before midnight eastern on day 30 of your cycle will keep your voicemail active while not having to pay for service basically the same service you have now whilst paying your monthly plan amount. Using lost/stolen to suspend does mean your rewards do not automatically get applied upon renewal so after you resume your service via lost/stolen, then pay and reactivate you can contact customer support to have the rewards applied manually to your account balance.

 Most importantly mark in your calendar day 85 and day 89 so you do not forget to reactivate your account before day 90 so as to not lose it. You can suspend again before day 30 for another 89/90 days depending on the length of your stay outside of Canada.

If you wish to have cell service while in the US look at mint mobile which has 90 day plans starting at US$15/4gb p/m with unlimited calling and texting in the US and to Canada and Mexico. In future you can call forward your pm number to a voip number like fongo while in Canada then remove your pm sim card and replace it with the mint mobile sim card (or any other local sim card) and you will then have your pm calls forwarded to your voip app making it worthwhile to pay for and continue your pm service while in the US.

[softech]

@Anonymous then it is behaving as designed..  no glitch

[Anonymous]

 @softech : I interpret it that they let an add-on expire and now wonder why callers don't get a ring.

[softech]

@Maiden I am not quiet sure if I understand.   Did you meant you got US Roaming plan but the call still not go to your phone while you are in US ?  If so, you got the US roaming plan with Talk?    If that is the case, did you try connecting you phone with the PM sim there onto AT&T or TMobile?  try both and see which one connects and work better.  

or if you decide not to buy roaming any more, maybe get a VoIP app like TextNow.  You will get a Canadian phone number,  give it to your friends and they can reach you that way.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

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@Maiden wrote:

Sorry this may be confusing. I am in the U.S. and let my $20 every 10 day plan run out. (its ridiculous) because I have a home phone here in the U.S.

When anyone tries to call my cell phone however, in Canada, it goes straight to voicemail. Why doesn't it ring for them a few times first? 

When a phone goes straight to voicemail its usually because a person is talking on it when you call them, I am not talking on my phone. It doesn't work down here.

I'm still paying for my Public Mobile plan in Canada while I'm down here (or they'd cut me off) so why isn't my phone ringing for a person to hear when they try to call my cell?

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@Maiden- Not quite sure i understand the problem...  but, if your roaming package has expired (as you said it has), there should be no expectation that your phone would ring before going to voicemail.  The system knows that you are not connected, and thus sends it directly to voicemail.  If I have mis-understood, please elaborate.

[Anonymous]

Voicemail works by way of call forwarding. There are 4 kinds. 1. Global 2. Busy 3. Unavailable 4. No answer. Only one can set ring time. The others forward right away.

Edit: None of the above post will work for you in your situation.