US Roaming - Alaska

[jonqin]

Went on a cruise ship from Vancouver to Alaska, July 23rd.   Purchased $20 US Roaming but it never worked.  Always No signal anywhere in Alaska, example Juneau, Sitka, Ketchikan.   I thoroughly checked my phone settings, they were all good. I power cycled the phone but that didn't solve the issue.  Can I get a answer why roaming didn't work there? Did I miss something here?  And if I should get refund for the service that I didn't actually enjoy?  Thx. 

[TCMYen]

I have US-Canada $35 monthly plan and just came back from Alaska Cruise yesterday. No problem to use data in Juneau or Ketchikan, the signal might be a bit weak depending on your location.

[dust2dust]

@bpdorsey- Yup, they should say something about not working in Alaska. Public used to have a roaming agreement with AT&T which had service in Alaska. Then AT&T (and T-Mobile) shut down their UMTS network. They then apparently decided to rip up the roaming agreement here. Probably because this place refused to move on to volte at the time. Telus had to figure out their own proprietary, non-standard way of implementing volte and block devices that would otherwise work perfectly fine on volte.

So T-Mobile had kept their old 2G GSM network going and allowed us to roam on it. But they have no infrastructure in Alaska so therefor we can't roam there. Their customers roam on another network there but that doesn't translate to us being able to roam.

Ask for your money back.

You can also use voip apps when connected to a wifi to talk and text.

[bpdorsey]

Public mobile does not work in Haines, Alaska although the website erroneously shows that it does. Very frustrating and dangerous for us who rely on our phones for safety. Makes me reconsider using PM. 

[esjliv]

Oooh @computergeek541 , very good. 👌

[computergeek541]

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@esjliv wrote:

@jonqin - if you still see the funds you added to add the addon to your account in your Available funds area, then you really did not successfully add the roaming addon to your account (missed the 2nd step of adding the addon after funds were loaded).

If this is your case, you can leave those funds in your Available funds area and these $s will be used on future renewals.

Otherwise, see @softech posts to contact CSA and see what they can do for you.

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@esjliv 

There is no longer any two step procedure to purhcase add-ons.  If someone doesn't already have the funds in the Public Mobile account, yes, the customer needs to make a payment, but the payment and purchase of the add-on is now done during the same process.

[esjliv]

@jonqin - if you still see the funds you added to add the addon to your account in your Available funds area, then you really did not successfully add the roaming addon to your account (missed the 2nd step of adding the addon after funds were loaded).

If this is your case, you can leave those funds in your Available funds area and these $s will be used on future renewals.

Otherwise, see @softech posts to contact CSA and see what they can do for you.

[Kristowhy]

Seriously...why is PM still selling US roaming talk/text given the 3G shutdown south of the border?!?!  Until the VoLTE situation is cleared up the only US roaming options available to purchase should be mobile data.  I guess it's cheaper to just leave things be and frustrate customers in the meanwhile... 👎

[Timer]

@jonqin 

contact to support team by private message CS_Agent to remove it the add-ons from your account.

[softech · Accepted solution]

@jonqin   Yes, many reported roaming in  Alaska does not work well.  

It could be a result of the shutdown of the 3G network in US.

So far, these are the cities reported that are not working:

             Fairbanks, Anchorage, North Pole

Please open ticket with PM support and they will reverse the transaction and put the credit back to your account for future use:

1. If you have access to My account: At https://publicmobile.ca/chatbot.

Start by typing "Submit a ticket", then click "Contact Us", Then click "Other", then click "Click here to submit a ticket ↗" 

2. If you don't have access to My Account or have trouble with Chatbot: Private message CS Agent at: 

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

**Monitor your Community inbox (envelope icon on the top right) after the ticket is opened.  CS Agent will reply you there