US Roaming Add-on Review

[kb_mv]

I recently took a trip down the US east coast from Maine to Key West and back. I decided to buy the US roaming add on(s) and thought that with all the questions about stopping 3G service in the states, I would let everyone know my experience. YMMV

I bought the US Talk, Text and 250MB data. As soon as I hit the US border I received a welcome to the US text from PM. My phone connected with AT&T. 90% of the trip my phone was with AT&T, the remainder of the time on T-Mobile. Interestingly, the data connection on AT&T was H+ and on T-Mobile it was LTE.

Coverage was good all the way down to Key West. I didn't make or receive a lot of calls but when I did it worked. Every time I checked my phone, the signal strength was good. I ran out of the 250MB of data and went in and purchased the 1GB US data on top of the Talk and text and (now used up) data plan. It started working immediately, no restarting or anything else required. Again this data was H+ on AT&T and LTE on T-Mobile.

On day 9 and a half I received a text from PM letting me know my plan was about to expire. After 10 days, to the minute as I recall, my phone service stopped working. I received a message when I tried to dial out that I did not have any minutes remaining. I went into my account, purchased the US Talk only to finish the trip. It started working immediately. I made a call right after I purchased it. I didn't have to wait 24 hours to buy the new add-on, I didn't have to re start my phone, it just worked immediately.

I bought only the Talk as I read on here that I would still receive texts but wouldn't be able to send them. No worries as I had the data add on and talk. An interesting note about texting. As i was driving north into Georgia I started receiving text messages from PM saying that my plan did not include sending texts yada yada yada. I received 16 of these, one about every 10 minutes and only in Georgia. Just a tad annoying when you're on the highway doing 75 and your vehicle keeps announcing a new text message from PM telling me something that I already know. I wonder what the issue was in Georgia and no where else.

Anyways, service on the east coast was good, 3G is still working as of this post.

[darlicious]

@kb_mv 

Testing voLTE would have been nice but I doubt it would have worked as it needs to be enabled by the provider full stop.

My theory on the US roaming add ons being 10 days rather than 7 days is that it encompasses both weekends and the work week.

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 #

[kb_mv]

Thanks everyone for their comments. @darlicious @esjliv @softech @HALIMACS @dabr @Nezgar 

Guess I got lucky by purchasing 2 different add ons. Good for people to know that buying a different one bypasses the 24hr wait (how ridiculous is this PM?). The total package, then the data add on and then the voice only worked well. If someone texted me I could have called or sent message over data. I'm sure some combination of the 4 packages would work well for most people.

One final comment or peeve about the US add ons:

What's up with the 10 day validity period? Most people I know (myself included) travel for increments of 1 week. (First world problem I know!) It seemed a waste to have to buy another 10 day add on to cover 4 days left on my trip. I would prefer that the prices get adjusted to a 7 day validity period. Maybe it's just me.

As for VOLTE, I would have had to go into my settings and selected 4G calling to see if it worked. It didn't occur to me to do this as while on PM network in Canada it isn't an option even though my Pixel 5 5G allows it.

[darlicious]

@kb_mv 

Thanks for sharing your recent experience using pm's US roaming add ons and how unaffected they were so far by the decommissioning of the 3G network in the US. Maybe all those text messages in Georgia were caused by the Walking Dead swarming cell towers...?

@softech 

The "glitch" per se is the roaming add on showing up in your account for repurchase. Timing when you first purchase the add on during customer support business hours and then contacting customer support the day before it expires and requesting that they add it for you after you have preloaded the funds onto your account balance and the add on expires will make it nearly seamless.

Or as one customer related they purchase the US Roaming talk, text & 250mb data bundle and then staggers the purchase of the 1GB US data add on to use their voip number during the 24 hour waiting period and then repurchases the bundle when it becomes available.

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 #

[esjliv]

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@softech wrote:

personally i doubt they made much $ from roaming.  

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I'd say they make money @softech . The customer still has have an active plan afterall. If there was no usa roaming options at all, more customers may let there plan suspend more often if they are away weeks at a time.

[softech]

personally i doubt they made much $ from roaming.  maybe that was exactly why they don't have interest to fix the system.. probably they will end up spending more (at least short term) to fix the system than the money they lost from that 24 hours trouble.

[HALIMACS]

@softech   I agree that it likely wasn't an intended restriction.  (after all, they're likely losing some add-on purchasing revenue on this as users spend time trying to add and get frustrated and just give up).   

Ideally, users should be able to purchase consecutive add-on's which run seamlessly.

[softech]

@esjliv   would daily roaming turns out to be an "every other day" roaming because of the 24 hours wait time? LoL

@HALIMACS   I have a feeling it is not a "restriction" they imposed , but some technical limitation.  probably they can fix it but with some work ( maybe more sync. between different systems all throughout the day?), but they decide not to spend money on it ?

[HALIMACS]

Daily? 

No thanks @esjliv

Knowing this place, folks would have to wait 24 hours after each day roaming service before buying the next day.

Imagine the insanity that would create! 🥴

Let's get PM to remove the 24 hour waiting restriction first before proposing fewer day packages.

[dabr]

Great review @kb_mv but yeah there really should be no need for anyone having to wait 24 hours to repurchase a roaming add-on and it's even more baffling that PM hasn't bothered to fix the glitch after all this time.

[esjliv]

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@HALIMACS wrote:

TOTALLY agree with you @kb_mv 

There should be no wait-time associated with getting the identical US Roaming add-on immediately after the first one expires when roaming in the USA.  

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@HALIMACS @kb_mv  - agreed. 

Guess when you are planning a trip when you want services, with the same addon, don't plan over 240 hours in the usa. 🙄

I would like the option of a Dailey Roaming Addon, so much more flexibility for the traveller on this.

But, what hiccups could come with this option, 🤔

[HALIMACS]

TOTALLY agree with you @kb_mv 

There should be no wait-time associated with getting the identical US Roaming add-on immediately after the first one expires when roaming in the USA.  

Does anyone know why PM's system disallows this?  Is it a glitch, or by design?

[Nezgar]

So the first add-on you purchased was talk+text+data, which ran out after 10 days. For another 24 hours, you would not have been able to re-buy the talk+text+data. (It would not have shown up as an option to purchase)

Then you purchased a talk only add-on, which was OK because the talk service did not overlap. This would only have caused you problems with calls if you had purchased the talk add-on before the talk+text+data add-on expired.

Awesome review, thanks for posting your experience!

[softech]

@kb_mv   I think the no 24 hours wait was because you bought a different add-on?  

hey, any chance you tried if VoLTE works?  We have been wonder if roaming allows VoLTE

[kb_mv]

@HALIMACS I purchased just the talk the second time around so it was different. I can't imagine having to wait 24 hours in any case, it completely defeats the reason for me buying any US roaming. If I can't have uninterrupted coverage, why bother?

[HALIMACS]

Great personal experience to share @kb_mv 

Curious ... did you purchase the SAME add-on immediately following the expiry of the same one, or did you purchase one with slightly different offerings?

I'm just curious if the "waiting 24 hours" perhaps applies to re-using the same add-on.

[esjliv]

Good to hear @kb_mv 

Sounds like everything worked as it should...other that weird Georgia episode. 

I've read others post about only being able to purchase again after 24 hours after the first addon expired. That never sounded right to me. Perhaps people were recommending that as a buffer time period so the glitch wouldn't happen.

Great review of the roaming adds and services.

Glad your trip went well in that regard.