US roaming support

[longder1]

Recently crossed border into states. My old, grandfathered plan gives me 1g per month unlimited calls and texts in states. But it's not working. I cannot choose the T-Mobile network and my settings app seems possessed. Keeps flashing different displays and usually ends up with an option about disabling the sim card. Any help appreciated. Would love to talk to an agent or submit a ticket

[darlicious]

@wetcoaster 

When I was researching last spring my CCTS complaint part of the burden of proof for discrimination of a group of customers is a provider's normal business practices. Since rate hikes are very far and few between at pm this would or could serve as a second example of the business standard of pm when imposing a rate hike. Both this one and the revoked 2018 rate hike to the fall 2016 promo offered a migration to koodo option along with timely updates in self serve and notice to affected customers sent within a 24 hour time frame to all customers. An official announcement also accompanied the rate hike before or shortly after notices were sent out. The $3 rate hike notice to $10 50/50 plan subscribers did not follow these same practices and did contravene the terms of service by not posting the change at publicmobile.ca/plans until 69 days after it was imposed instead of 30 days before it imposed as per the terms of service.

But apparently the $3 pays for the world class service, 4G LTE and 5G network speeds, 24 hour call centre and tech support and improved online access to our accounts. No other pm customers had to pay 30% more for the same services as before.....just the most vulnerable group of customers using the emergency/limited or low usage plan.

[wetcoaster]

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@darlicious wrote:

@dust2dust 

I didn't find this announcement in my research last spring. Yet more evidence of the $10 50/50 plan subscribers being treated "differently".....no migration option them?!!

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@darlicious 

I might be misunderstanding you here*, but while the $10 50/50 was a grandfathered plan (before the price hike, obviously), it's not a pioneer plan like the ones in the 2018 announcement mentioned. The main push for migrating those, via a second price increase within less than a year ( the first price increase to pioneer plans was in April 2017) would have been giving the pioneer clients continued access to a call centre after PM's call centre was shut down, which the $10 never had access to.

If this is the plan the OP is on, they must be one of very, very few people who are still on that plan. With all the c*** that is happening in PM's self-serve these days, a stumble over some errand coding would not entirely surprise me, but what do I know?

* Not diminishing the concerns around the price hike on that plan!

[darlicious]

@dust2dust 

I didn't find this announcement in my research last spring. Yet more evidence of the $10 50/50 plan subscribers being treated "differently".....no migration option them?!!

[dust2dust]

Never heard of a 1gb and roaming in the US plan. The only plan I recall was the mentioned $60 plan.
Why can't you choose T-Mobile? When you scan for networks does it show T-Mobile in the list of found networks? If not then you're simply out of a T-Mobile coverage area.
Maybe the sim card is in fact disabled. There's a setting for that. When it gets connected to T-Mobile it will say T-Mobile. Not Public Mobile.
Then for calling, some phones have removed the ability to drop down to the old 2G network that T-Mobile still provides and that we can use for talk. Thus the other question of what make and model of phone.

Adding - wetcoaster was right. There was an old plan for exactly what the OP states in that timeframe. This is an announcement mentioning it.

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Announcements/Effective-February-15th-changes-are-hap...

[wetcoaster]

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@hairbag1 wrote:

@longder1 

what is your regular plan costs per 30 days ? There was a plan a few years ago that had Unlimited US talk/text/2GB of data for $60. Can you just confirm please. Log in to your account / Plan & Add-ons / Add-on Usage you should see mention of 2GB @ 3G

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@hairbag1 

I think the OP's plan is likely older than that, if not from the plan builder days then an original pre 2016 (?) pioneer plan. It would have been $45 originally and then increased to $50 in February 2018. While I've found the pricing, my notes don't explicitely mention if it's a plan that includes roaming.

[darlicious]

@longder1 

Your phone was working as normal before crossing over? Do you have access to another phone to test? Enable airplane mode, power off your phone and remove Sim card. Test in a different phone if possible. Regardless make sure you leave the Sim card out for 10 minutes. Reseat your Sim card in your phone and reboot. Turn airplane mode off. Try again to manually select T-Mobile. Also...

• What is the make and model of your phone?
• When was your last renewal?
• Where did you cross the border?
• Where are you now?

[Handy1]

@hTideGnow  I agree , and it’s a grandfathered plan and that’s when 3G was all the rage and now US abandoning the 3G  and even current US roaming. Add on seem to suffer as a result so I can just imagine this plan OP has is no better an option … the more I see these posts from customers about US roaming issues , makes me realize I’ll never depend on one until something drastically changes and  always opt for local sim in my destination just my .02 cents 

[hTideGnow]

hi @Handy1   but in OP case, he has paid for the service already (part of the plan), should try to make it work as much as possible

[softech]

@longder1   do you remember were you connecting to T-Mobile or AT&T before?

not sure if it is because AT&T no longer a roaming partner, and you cannot connect to AT&T this time, maybe that's why it is not working now 

But generally, you should be able to get T-mobile 4G/LTE network and you should be able to text.   For voice, because it needs T-Mobile 2G network, it will be tricker to connect as that is an older and less reliable network

May I know which city and state you are all? or you can check the map here to see T-Mobile's 2G coverage:

https://www.gsma.com/coverage/#466

Check here for more information about the current US roaming situation (great and informative post prepared by @darlicious 😞

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

[hairbag1]

@longder1 

what is your regular plan costs per 30 days ? There was a plan a few years ago that had Unlimited US talk/text/2GB of data for $60. Can you just confirm please. Log in to your account / Plan & Add-ons / Add-on Usage you should see mention of 2GB @ 3G.

[Handy1]

@hTideGnow @And @longder1  if you get to a T mobile shop depending how long your there for might be easier and more reliable to just get a prepaid sim from TMobile  so much uncertainty with US roaming in my opinion 

[hTideGnow]

HI @longder1   you are not connected to T-Mobile, so, you cannot text or voice

You can try again in another area, maybe you can get T-Mobile there.  Or find a T-Mobile shop around, likley there will be T-mobile signal outside its store. 🙂

[longder1]

Neither phone nor text working in u.s.

[hTideGnow]

HI @longder1 

Are you in Washington state?

 Try manual connect and see if you see T-Mobile

if you don't see it, change the network to 2G or GSM if possible, then do a network search again

if you can connect to T-Mobile, and if the T-Mobile 2G network is there, the phone can switch to 2G when you make calls, then calls would go through

[hairbag1]

@longder1 

try shutting phone down, then restart.

In setting, manually select T-Mobile as the preferred network.

My experience was that talk, text and data was sorta ok in larger urban areas...but diminished quickly in rural areas of eastern Wa state. Customers report service in non-extistant in Alaska.

[longder1]

I'm in u.s. 

[hTideGnow]

HI @longder1   are you saying you cannot receive calls in US?

or you cannot receive calls now after you back to Canada?

[longder1]

I can't receive, either

[longder1]

Have never had to purchase that before. I've been on this very old plan for at least 5 years

[hTideGnow]

HI @longder1   if you are in US,  you should try to connect to t-mobile

or you meant you are back in Canada and unable to connect to T-Mobile?

[esjliv]

@longder1 - 

Just curious if this plan is still able to work (as @hairbag1 alludes to).

But, if services of this plan were changing at any point I was wondering if there was any notifications from public mobile to you regarding your plan and the services it can and cannot provide at any point?

Shop Roaming addons if needed: https://selfserve.publicmobile.ca/en/account/manage/shop/addons

[Handy1]

@longder1  Here 

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Get-Support/US-roaming-support/td-p/941914

[longder1]

Further to last post...under Settings, then mobile network, it says public mobile top left and then that the sim card is disabled 

[hTideGnow · Accepted solution]

HI@longder1   which states  you are at?  Washington state?  if so, Washington states does not have great 2G for voice

Not sure if agent will do much since it is not an addon that they can refund you money, but try open ticket with them :

at : https://publicmobile.ca/chatbot.

First type Contact,
then select the only choice there: "Contact..",
from the list of , choose "Other"
finally click link the blue link about submit a ticket
Another page will open and just follow: .

After ticket is submitted, make sure to check your Community Inbox(top right corner envelope icon) periodically for response from PM

If you have problems submitting a ticket, you can open ticket by private message (but this can take longer):

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

[hairbag1]

@longder1 

check on the details of your plan. I'm not sure if that plan is going to allow calls while in US without the US Roaming add-on.

added

even w/o an add-on, you should still be able to recieve texts...you just won't be able to send texts.

[Handy1]

@longder1  open ticket 

while your already here and logged in the community

• you can send a private message to our  CS_Agents by clicking here.