Problem with US Roaming

[yvinogradov]

Purchased a text-talk-250mb roaming plan for the US

Got the the US but nothing works. Android phone. Data Roaming option is turned on. The phone is showing that it's connected to T-Mobile - there is icon up on top and also when I dig deeper into the phone's info and look at the SIM card data it's showing as connected to T-Mobile with roaming on and the carrier's signal present. When I try to make a phone call it drops the connection to T-Mobile, the connection comes back a few seconds later. Same thing with trying to send a text - drops the connection which comes back. Same with using data (trying to use WhatsApp for example). I've restarted the phone multiple times, same results.

This is not the first time I am using US roaming with this phone, it had always worked fine before. I also tried inserting my sim card into my wife's phone - same results.

Any fresh ideas are much appreciated

Thank you!

[darlicious]

@Osotua 

Well that's a BS response if I ever saw one. Shut down of the 3G network has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that you cannot connect to the 4G LTE network. If your APN is correct then I don't have any more suggestions for you.

[Osotua]

Nothing wrong with the phone. This is the response I got from the support agent at PM:

First that all, I want to apologize for the inconvenience you might be experiencing while US roaming, and thank you for understanding the situation of the US 3G Network Shutdown.

For more details:

https://bit.ly/3cMMYoX

Hope this helps

[darlicious]

@yvinogradov 

The APN on your phone is what connects you to mobile data. Phone's made specifically for the North American market by the major manufacturers like Samsung, Google, Moto etc.... Well automatically update the APN settings I'm going to new SIM card is put in the phone or you change providers etc...

Phone's like Ulefone, Umidigi, Agus Zenfone often need the APN edited and/or their APN will inexplicably revert to the default APN. So if you have a public mobile SIM card in your phone you will often find it has reverted to telus's APN. If that occurs your data won't work until you edit it back to public mobile's APN.

But if you feel confident that there's nothing wrong with your phone there's no need to check it.

[ShawnC13]

@Sherbert, glad we were able to get your issue resolved and things are working now.

[yvinogradov]

Darlicious - EVERYTHING works at home - data, text, voice. NOTHING works in the US with 4G or 3G selected. With 2G selected while in the US I get voice and text. Don't know anything about the APN. What I do know however is that PM roaming in the US worked fine with the very same "chinese made phone" back in the spring. I highly doubt that the problem is with the phone. 

[darlicious]

@Sherbert 

You don't have a talk add-on so ignore 2G network service you don't need it. Let's start from the beginning and ensure that you have roaming data enabled in your settings.

Reboot your phone. Manually select either AT&t or T-Mobile. If using your Auto connect network setting is not giving you a good connection switch to 4G LTE only. Toggle airplane mode on/off. Do you now have a stable network connection to either AT&t or T-Mobile?

[Osotua]

I’ve had similar issues - spending money on Uber due to unavailable data. We should not be wasting time troubleshooting issues. Public Mobile should ensure that they deliver the service or not offer it at all if unable to do so.

[Sherbert]

I was able to get some help from @ShawnC13 and it turns out I purchased unlimited Roaming text but I needed to purchase 1 GB Data Roaming once I did that I was good to go. So now I need to know if their is a way for me to get credit because I purchased US Roaming Talk for $8.00 Twice and I purchased US 1GB Add On for $15.00 Twice. I wish it was easier to understand because even the bundle doesn't make sense if it wasn't for Shawn to show me to look farther down the page I would have not been able to use my phone in the states. Thanks Shawn.

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This message is for @yvinogradov 

So great I am in theUS today and tried to use my phone to get an Uber with no success no the option to switch to 2g is not thier so I just spent $23.00 to not be able to use my phone 🤷🏼‍♀️ Also I don’t even see it added to my account. Is thier a different spot to go look? I am staying in a house with Wifi. So I am able to use the internet, I am hope for a solution 

[dust2dust]

@darlicious- That's a very good question and I don't recall looking for it. Data worked. I made no changes. But maybe it does anyway. So my answer is - I don't know.

So sure maybe @yvinogradov could provide some APN images of what he currently has.

[darlicious]

@dust2dust 

So your APN did not change to whichever US network you were using at the time it just remained on public mobiles?

[dust2dust]

@darlicious- Around here anything's possible but

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I am assuming it was on 4G back home, it was set to 4G when I started digging into it when I realized my roaming package wasn't working. And yeah, I had no issues with data at home. I am on a 3G plan with PM though, not sure how it worked with my phone set to 4G, but like I said it always worked fine and I never bothered to look into it.

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Seems to me he had data working at home.

[darlicious]

@dust2dust 

If you reread his post it does not confirm that he has mobile data at home just that he can't distinguish between hotspotting and unlimited Wi-Fi so the APN issue is still at play.

[dust2dust]

@darlicious- He said he had no issues with data at home. He also said he was able to text on 2G-only. All very interesting. It's very strange that he can get this far but not have data.

[darlicious]

@yvinogradov 

Your phone probably needs to have the APN edited. This is a common problem with phones from Chinese manufacturers. You may not have even had data at home if you cannot confirm it. I'm pretty sure you still use the public mobile APN while roaming in the US can you check it and see what your APN says?

If the issue of you using data is not an APN issue and it's a problem on public mobiles part you can contact customer support either now or after your trip and ask for a partial credit back on your US roaming add-on bundle.

In your network settings does it have auto connect for choosing between the 4G 3G and 2G networks? That may be why it's not automatically switching to 2G for voice calls or it could just be tied up with that you don't connect to the 4G LTE network to begin with?

I believe texting will only work on the 4G LTE network not on 2G if I remember that correctly so if you're not connecting to the 4G LTE network that's explains why you can't use your texting.

[dust2dust]

Sent you a private message. I don't know why I couldn't post something. I'll see if this posts.

[yvinogradov]

I am assuming it was on 4G back home, it was set to 4G when I started digging into it when I realized my roaming package wasn't working. And yeah, I had no issues with data at home. I am on a 3G plan with PM though, not sure how it worked with my phone set to 4G, but like I said it always worked fine and I never bothered to look into it.

My Ulefone is an Armor 8 Pro with Android 11 installed on it

I could hotspot off my wife's phone, but my suck out a lot of data as it can't distiguish between unlimited WiFi at home and Wifi off a hotspot and can start downloading updates and such. With her having data I really only need call and text. 

[dust2dust]

Was it on 4G back home before you left? Did your normal plan data work at home?

Well you can hotspot off your wifes phone 🙂

What is your model Ulefone?

Adding - edited after previous post

[yvinogradov]

no, my phone is a Ulefone (some sort of a cheap Android phone)

[yvinogradov]

my phone has 3 options - 2G, 3G, 4G. It was on 4G initially and nothing was working. Same with 3G. With 2G as per your suggestion I get voice and text. I don't get data with any of these options. Strangely my wife's IPhone has data only package and it works. Go figure...

[dust2dust]

3G should get you nowhere. But 4G should have theoretically got you data and text. Does your phone not have an option for several of those? Wait...is this an iphone?

[yvinogradov]

if I switch back to 3G or 4G then nothing works at all, so 2G is my only option. Had I known I would've purchased a call/text package for $15 instead of call/text/250MB for $20 🙂

[dust2dust]

Excellent update. Thanks for doing that. So your phone is on 2G only? If you switch it back to the usual 4G/3G/2G etc. then does data work? And maybe text? And maybe it might even switch down to 2G for calling?

[yvinogradov]

call and text works, not sure about data as I am sitting in McDonalnds on their WiFi.

switched the WiFi off and you are right, data doesn't work over 2G. Well, at least I can call and text 🙂

[dust2dust]

Great! So that's talk. What about text and data? I seem to recall that data doesn't work on 2G Edge but maybe I'm wrong.

[yvinogradov]

Dust2Dust - great idea and it worked!!!  Switched to 2G and it solved the issue. Saved me tons of $$$ as I was about to go buy a refurbished phone at a local retailer.

[dust2dust]

@darlicious- It's embarrassingly bad. It's why I started out saying "brutal". I think they should just yank the whole lot and put it all off until volte and new agreements thereof. I've begun to agree with Outdoorsman from a while ago.

Sure yes it could be a trend. It's awful.

[darlicious]

@yvinogradov @Osotua 

Read the following post and use the links for the network coverage maps included within to see if that helps to see if you are in an area of good network coverage for either Network provider.

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Get-Support/US-Roaming-Add-ons-Decommissioning-of-US-...

@dust2dust 

This is now five separate users in the last hour and a half or so who have complained that they cannot use their us roaming add-ons? Is it possible there is an entirely different issue happening here with public mobile and their roaming partners? Although this will probably fall on deaf ears since it's a holiday.....(and again no offense intended or pun for that matter.)

@J_PM 

We were looking at the possibility that there was a problem with AT&t last week as there were many complaints about not being able to connect to them and now we are hearing many complaints today that there is trouble connecting to T-Mobile as well. Does public mobile have an issue with their roaming partners at the moment? Public Mobile needs to look into this and address it if there is an issue with their US roaming add-ons.

[dust2dust · Accepted solution]

@Osotua- Did you read and try some of the ideas that yvinogradov did? Which add-on did you get? Another idea might be to see if you can select 2G only on your phone if you had bought talk. Only with T-Mobile. Long shot though.

[Osotua]

I’m having same issue. Add on US roaming

not working at all

[dust2dust]

Brutal. So talk is very problematic and hopefully you did not buy another talk part. But with the same thing happening with text and data maybe that's not it. I think those are some of the suggestions we would make. Great job troubleshooting. Were you aware that the US partners have shut down much of the talk networks? But data and text should work fine. Are you at all possibly able to get anywhere with AT&T?