call in USA

[fifi1122]

I mainly live in Canada, and just bought $30 subscription: 30$ per month, 20GB Data within Canada and the US at 4G Speed, and Unlimited Canada and US wide minutes and messaging plus unlimited international text and picture messaging. I use public mobile phone number in USA (San Francisco), but the thing is as soon I arrived in USA, the public mobile send me a text that saying the want to charge me for data (which is weird because this should include in the subscription and no need to charge me anything), my phone can access WIFI, but I can't make any call or receiving any call whether from Canada and USA. Can you please see what's going on with this phone number?

[computergeek541]

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@Phil_Adelphus wrote:

@computergeek541  Data roaming settings are unrelated to ability or inability to make phone calls

Another Canadian carrier states in their FAQ that when outside of their own coverage area customers need to enable data roaming for VoLTE to work (for permission to access the roaming partner's data network since VoLTE uses data although doesn't charge for it)?   I could include a link to the FAQ but then this post would probably be auto-deleted. 

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I believe that any such statement made by a carrier saying that data raoming needs to be enabled to use VoLTE while roaming to be nonsense. You can completely disable data and VoLTE still works.  Give it a try.  You'll have to go into the phone's status menus during a call, but I can confirm that VoLTE works when data is entirely turned off.

An example of bad information be spread by carriers:  When the emergency alterts system rolled out on LTE networks, some carriers, including Public Mobile, falsely stated that that data needed to enabled to receive the alerts though the offical alert system. That information was completely wrong.  Large nation wide news agency also got this wrong.

[Phil_Adelphus]

@computergeek541  Data roaming settings are unrelated to ability or inability to make phone calls

Another Canadian carrier states in their FAQ that when outside of their own coverage area customers need to enable data roaming for VoLTE to work (for permission to access the roaming partner's data network since VoLTE uses data although doesn't charge for it)?   I could include a link to the FAQ but then this post would probably be auto-deleted.

@fifi1122 Here is a link to the phones Public Mobile approves for VoLTE, although other phones may also work.  What phone do you have?  If your phone doesn't support VoLTE, which is needed in the USA as there is no more 3G there, you could download a voip app like Fongo to use over wifi or cellular data although you would have a different phone number.

https://www.publicmobile.ca/en/on/get-help/articles/volte 

[computergeek541]

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@Neil11 wrote:

The text is standard but you can ignore it. PM is prepaid so no surprise extra charges. Just remember when in the US to have data roaming turned on in phone settings . Also set your network to 4G/LTE not 5G and make sure your connected to T mobile or AT&T some have also confirmed that Verizon works in some places so just be sure to try all 3 and use what works best for you.

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Data roaming settings are unrelated to ability or inability to make phone calls.

[Neil11]

The text is standard but you can ignore it. PM is prepaid so no surprise extra charges. Just remember when in the US to have data roaming turned on in phone settings . Also set your network to 4G/LTE not 5G and make sure your connected to T mobile or AT&T some have also confirmed that Verizon works in some places so just be sure to try all 3 and use what works best for you.

[computergeek541]

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@fifi1122 wrote:

I mainly live in Canada, and just bought $30 subscription: 30$ per month, 20GB Data within Canada and the US at 4G Speed, and Unlimited Canada and US wide minutes and messaging plus unlimited international text and picture messaging. I use public mobile phone number in USA (San Francisco), but the thing is as soon I arrived in USA, the public mobile send me a text that saying the want to charge me for data (which is weird because this should include in the subscription and no need to charge me anything), my phone can access WIFI, but I can't make any call or receiving any call whether from Canada and USA. Can you please see what's going on with this phone number?

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Ignore the text message. All Public Mobile customers receive that text message when connecting to a US network even if the plan already includes usage while in the US (which yours does).  As for phone calls, a phone that works on Public Mobile's VoLTE is generally needed.  Did your phone work on the LTE network during phone calls while using the Public Mobile network?