big troubles with Public Mobile and US Mobile while travelling in the U.S.

[bubbanorth]

Things seem to really be a mess with my service(s)

Recently bought a Xiaom Redmi Note 11 pro+. It is a dual sim phone.

I used it in Ontario for a few days without issue, received calls and texts, did not try pics in text.

Bought a 10 day roaming plan for the US - talk and text.
My credit card was charged for this roaming plan.

I crossed the border on the evening of Sunday Aug 21st. I am currently in Nebraska, driving to Idaho then British Columbia.

Soon after I crossed the border, even though I had not sent any texts, I rec'd a few text messages from 611 saying, "sorry your plan does not include sending texts while in the US. Incoming texts are included. To add a US roaming Add-on visit selfserve....."

While here i have had phone calls and text exchanges, sending a pic in text did not work.

While here I signed up for a data-only plan with US mobile. I have had issues with it not connecting automatically when I crossed the border and dropping to 0 bars for hours. I have had to call them 3 times in 5 days. They may have 'tweaked' some things at their end, not sure what, but the first two times they were able to fix things.

***** Today, both sims indicated 0 bars and both have a little x in the bottom of the bars. ***** I cannot call, text or use data.

Both sims in my phone say I am on T-mobile, I am worried that there is some kind of conflict between the sims, or there is a setting incorrect.

I have my old phone with me. I have used it on Public mobile for years. Recently upgraded to the 4G plan. I put my public mobile sim in the old phone, expecting talk and text  - No joy.  0 bars, when i try a phone call it says Cellular network not available for voice calls.

Can anyone tell me what is going on???  Please and thank you in advance.  I have put in a request for chat, but no response yet.  I need to figure out tonight what to do as I leave early tomorrow and will be without wifi or any cell service until I stop again tomorrow evening.

Thank you to all.

[darlicious]

@bubbanorth 

I'm happy to hear you are now sorted out. Be sure to give us a review of mint mobile we're all big fans and I for one hope that maybe they can make inroads into the Canadian market.

Yes the xiaomi phone is made for the international market and generally phones especially chinese phones made for the international market don't automatically populate the APN as a result you usually have to edit it yourself or get a configuration file sent to you.

It's likely that because you didn't fully test out the service you had before you left Canada you were lacking a full carrier profile for your data on your public mobile service. While your phone will have compatibility in nearly every country in the world you will likely need a configuration file or help editing your APN every time you switch carriers or regions if you travel around the world.

I also noticed a couple of states that had apparently no service for certain carriers Nebraska was probably one of them. In researching roaming partners I noticed a slew of US providers that I've never heard of but have large areas of states or entire States  they exclusively serve that the US national carriers have roaming agreements with but those roaming agreements don't extend to their roaming partners like public mobile.

This is usually reflected in Alaska where the main carrier there is GCI which T-Mobile roams on but that doesn't extend to public mobile. AT&t has their own network there so we should be able to roam on their network but the recent reports of connectivity problems with AT&t is probably why that's currently an issue.

[bubbanorth]

Situation solved.  Thanks for all the help everyone.

Once I travelled out of Nebraska ( check out the T-mobile coverage map! ) I now have Talk and Text with PM on my old phone, it'll probably work with my Xiaomi but everything's working so I'm not going to change it.

I bought a Mint Mobile plan, 10gb per month for the Xiaomi.  I am currently getting 5G in Casper Wyoming.  Even with Mint Mobile I had to call to have them 'do something' at their end, but this was better than the online chat and phone calls I had with US Mobile.

btw the Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 pro+ has a ton of bands, hoping that makes traveling better.

https://www.gsmarena.com/xiaomi_redmi_note_11_pro+_5g-11180.php

[LeePublic]

@bubbanorth 

Also, the phone model may not have all the compatible bands with North American carriers.... The Xiaomi phone may be the culprit. Xiaomi phones aren't the best phones to use in North America because they lack North American certification, thus may have compatibility issues and have iffy/finicky connectivity.

[bubbanorth]

darlicious - thank you for your detailed response.

I see now that there is a huge whole in T-mobile's coverage covering most of the state of Nebraska.  Hopefully this explains why both my PM roaming and US Mobile data had zero bars.  I should be in Wyoming later today, we'll see if any bars pop up.

[darlicious]

@bubbanorth @Atrebla211 

Ok you two have related issues but not the same issue however you will both benefit from the information contained in this post... have a read of it as it contains some handy links and maps and info on US roaming.

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

@bubbanorth 

You have an APN issue. Hopefully by inputting the correct APN settings for public mobile this should allow you to connect to their US roaming partners of T-Mobile and AT&T. You can only get voice services with T-Mobile and keep your phone on the auto connect setting of your preferred network type so that it will automatically drop from 4G LTE to 2G and in some cases 3G where has not been eliminated yet for your voice calls. AT&T has no voice call services for public mobile customers currently and additionally there seems to be generally a problem connecting to AT&T at the moment so you can try them in desperation at some point in time otherwise stick with T-Mobile.

Please see below for a version of one of public mobile's APNs that may work for you and see if you are able to edit and save it in your access point network's setting. If you're able to do that reboot your phone make sure you roaming is enabled in your phone and manually select T-Mobile and see if you can connect. If not try rebooting and if still not try toggling airplane mode on/off. It's still no joy then beat a path back here and we'll keep troubleshooting for you.

@Atrebla211 

You are in Alaska that's a whole different kettle of fish or king salmon or snow crabs maybe....

There is no T-Mobile coverage for roaming partners in Alaska. Your only choice is AT&T which has been an issue lately for public mobile customers. That is coupled with there is only service in the major cities and towns and along some of the highway corridors but otherwise it's Alaska it was not great coverage. And being AT&T there's no voice call coverage at all. So customer support is aware of this when you have time either now or when you get back contact customer support ask for a credit put on your account for your roaming bundle since it's pretty much unusable.

@bubbanorth 

Here try adding/editing this APN into your network settings....

Name

Mobile Internet

APN

sp.mb.com

Proxy

Not set

Port

Not set

Username

Not set

Password

Not set

Server

Not set

MMSC

http://aliasredirect.net/proxy/mb/mmsc

MMS proxy

mmscproxy.mobility.ca

MMS port

8799

MCC

302

MNC

220

Authentication type

Not set

APN type

default,mms,agps,supl,fota,hipri

APN protocol

IPv4

APN roaming protocol

IPv4

APN enable/disable

APN enabled

Bearer

Unspecified

MVNO type

GID

MVNO value

4D4F

[softech]

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@Atrebla211 wrote:

Thanks.  On a fixed schedule and no personal transportation so no opportunity to buy a local sim.  Why is PM selling something that doesn’t work?  Seems like a very bad idea! Next time I’ll know better 😤

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@Atrebla211   the good thing is that PM will definitely refund the cost of it.

Which city are you now at?

What is happening is that PM only uses 3G for voice but can use LTE/3G for Text.  With US shutting down 3G network, it gives some challenge to roaming service with PM .  Luckily PM partners with T-Mobile and T-Mobile still has a 2G network that can help to deliver voice service

So, in your case, you need to make sure you are connecting to T-Mobile.  if Automatic does not connect to T-Mobile, try to make sure you connect manually. 

On the other hand, T-Mobile 2G network is a bit limited in coverage, so, not everywhere has it.   

Since you seem like moving around , hope you will be able to pickup T-Mobile network when you move to another area.

[Atrebla211]

Thanks.  On a fixed schedule and no personal transportation so no opportunity to buy a local sim.  Why is PM selling something that doesn’t work?  Seems like a very bad idea! Next time I’ll know better 😤

[computergeek541]

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@Atrebla211 wrote:

I’m. travelling in Alaska and haven’t had much success with the roaming add-on.  Paid $20 and it worked for 2 or 3 hours on the second day. I tried the link “CS Agent” but get a red banner message saying 

I can’t access.

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You need to be both logged into your Community account at the time of trying to use the private message link and the private messaging feature must also be enable inside the settings of your Community account.  Try the link of Preferences - My settings - Community (publicmobile.ca) to turn on private messaging (but only if you're already logged into Community).

[Kristowhy]

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@Atrebla211 wrote:

I’m. travelling in Alaska and haven’t had much success with the roaming add-on.  Paid $20 and it worked for 2 or 3 hours on the second day. I tried the link “CS Agent” but get a red banner message saying 

I can’t access.

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Get a local US prepaid SIM and use that instead.  There are too many issues currently with US roaming.  Trust me on this..and happy travels! 😊

[Atrebla211]

I’m. travelling in Alaska and haven’t had much success with the roaming add-on.  Paid $20 and it worked for 2 or 3 hours on the second day. I tried the link “CS Agent” but get a red banner message saying 

I can’t access.

[Timer]

@bubbanorth 

it's very difficult, because in U.S is shut down the 3G and PM has deal with 3G service and for some area not cover right some customer has reporting about U.S roaming.

contact support team by  CS_Agent  to remove it from your account if not working.

[bubbanorth]

I have rebooted many times!!!  Manually selecting the T-Mobile network I don't quite understand, bit of a noob here.  Could you explain please. Thanks.

[Timer]

@bubbanorth 

Have you tried manually select the network T-mobile. and rebooting device.