U.S. Roaming after 3G/HSPA network shutdown in the US

[morandi1963]

The U.S. Roaming add on page has the following notice:

Important: As of February 22nd, 2022, some United States (U.S) carriers will begin turning down certain 3G/HSPA networks in the U.S. [..] customers using U.S. roaming add-ons may be impacted by differences in coverage [..] (including 9-1-1 calls) when roaming in the U.S.

This notice is not clear or helpful to those planning to travel to the U.S.

If I purchase a U.S. Roaming add-on (March 5-march15, to use it mostly in California), will I be able to use it to call and access data in the US or not?

Thanks

[darlicious · Accepted solution]

@morandi1963 

You will be able to use your voice services with a US roaming add on with T-Mobile only until July 1st. After that date there will be no voice services available for pm customers using US roaming add ons unless pm chooses to enable voLTE calling for pm customers.

The work around would be to download a voip app like textnow or fongo and use it for voice services while on wifi or with mobile data. It will use approximately 0.5mb/min (100mb=200min). Textnow for example has free incoming and outgoing texts/calls. Pm customers can recieve incoming texts without any US roaming add ons so you could purchase only a US roaming data add on and with a voip number be able to use voice and text services with your US roaming data add on .

Alternatively you can call forward your pm number to your voip number before leaving Canada and remove the sim card and use a local sim card instead for your services. If you leave your pm sim card in Canada in a powered on plugged into a charger you can also use a text forwarding app to forward your texts to your voip number as well.

To contact customer support click below:

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

To pre-verify your account include your full name, address, email, phone # and 4 digit acct pin #.

[Anonymous]

 @hTideGnow : I  also saw that VoLTE comment from an Oracle but I don't believe it. I don't know what information they based that on.

The situation is actually quite clear and publicized. AT&T shut off their 3G just recently. T-Mobile will be July 1. Those are the only two roaming partners this place uses.

[hTideGnow]

HI @morandi1963   I don't think the situation is very clear, either

but, try to connect to T-Mobile first

if your phone has VoLTE, you can enable it.  I think I saw post from an Oracle confirming that we can use VoLTE on AT&T and T-Mobile if our phones has VoLTE

[Anonymous]

So far that warning only applies to talk while on AT&T. AT&T can do data and text on their 4G LTE. Instead...just connect to T-Mobile and you'll be fine.