Roaming charges?

[Frustrated3]

I can't use my phone. Whenever I try, I get a message telling me to purchase a US roaming add on. I haven't left Canada. It does work when I am in downtown Victoria, but it doesn't work in Sooke where I live. This is a safety issue because I can't call 911. I was told to contact their "support team," but it isn't clear how you do that. Thanks.

[stonechucker]

As Public Mobile uses both Telus and Bell towers, selecting the Public Mobile only would be my suggestion, and don't worry about the US network, unless you're going to visit the US.

Windsor Ontario is also surrounded by the US, and this is how I deal with it when I'm there.  Closer to home, the Niagara region is also flooded with the US signals, and again, forcing the Public Mobile selection works the best.

[Frustrated3]

Thanks everyone for your thoughts.

[Metal1967]

A roaming talk addon that rolls over would sure be a nice addition to the lineup for people that face this situation while still only in canada

[RobertQc]

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@ShawnC13 wrote:

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@RobertQc wrote:

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@ShawnC13 wrote:

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@RobertQc wrote:

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@ShawnC13 wrote:

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@Frustrated3 wrote:

I can't use my phone. Whenever I try, I get a message telling me to purchase a US roaming add on. I haven't left Canada. It does work when I am in downtown Victoria, but it doesn't work in Sooke where I live. This is a safety issue because I can't call 911. I was told to contact their "support team," but it isn't clear how you do that. Thanks.

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@RobertQc,and @computergeek541 , the user is in Canada.  Here on the Island there are many places that we would Roam to the US and that is what is happening here.  @Frustrated3 , where abouts in Sooke are you East Sooke or even out past Sooke?

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@ShawnC13  Yes I am aware of this, its a couple kilometers away from washington, hence being on tmobile/at&t, manually switching to public mobile is the solution here.

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I get areas of no service and not able to pick PM when  looking.

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@ShawnC13 Yes, which should mean if you force manually select public mobile (during the time it is searchable), when there is no service then it wont search / connect to a partner network, it will say "no service" for that time, instead of switching to at&t / t mobile, once it picks public mobile back up it will connect only to pm

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Then here we should always have it set that way. There is a beach close to my house where we roam.  Even at my work there is a spot where if we get behind a certain building we start to roam.

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@ShawnC13  Yes, thats the best idea, always manually set it to PM for that reason, its better to say no service, then to connect to something you cannot use that stops you from connecting back from what you can use. Automatically connect is something needed for wind/rogers or a provider using different networks like sasktel, if I understand correctly

[computergeek541]

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@ShawnC13 wrote:

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@RobertQc,and @computergeek541 , the user is in Canada.  Here on the Island there are many places that we would Roam to the US and that is what is happening here.  @Frustrated3 , where abouts in Sooke are you East Sooke or even out past Sooke?

ETA Even on Koodo you would be Roaming the US.  My daughter recently went out there and I got an email saying she was Roaming in the US

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Earlier, I was only trying to address the 911 calling concern.

For the customers near the border, the only thing that I can think of to prevent the phone from connecting to a roaming network would be to manually force connection to a specific network in the phone network settings.

It's too bad that Public Mobile customers can't roam for free on other Canadian networks.  That would help in some situations in which there is no Telus signal.

[ShawnC13]

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@RobertQc wrote:

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@ShawnC13 wrote:

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@RobertQc wrote:

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@ShawnC13 wrote:

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@Frustrated3 wrote:

I can't use my phone. Whenever I try, I get a message telling me to purchase a US roaming add on. I haven't left Canada. It does work when I am in downtown Victoria, but it doesn't work in Sooke where I live. This is a safety issue because I can't call 911. I was told to contact their "support team," but it isn't clear how you do that. Thanks.

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@RobertQc,and @computergeek541 , the user is in Canada.  Here on the Island there are many places that we would Roam to the US and that is what is happening here.  @Frustrated3 , where abouts in Sooke are you East Sooke or even out past Sooke?

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@ShawnC13  Yes I am aware of this, its a couple kilometers away from washington, hence being on tmobile/at&t, manually switching to public mobile is the solution here.

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I get areas of no service and not able to pick PM when  looking.

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@ShawnC13 Yes, which should mean if you force manually select public mobile (during the time it is searchable), when there is no service then it wont search / connect to a partner network, it will say "no service" for that time, instead of switching to at&t / t mobile, once it picks public mobile back up it will connect only to pm

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Then here we should always have it set that way. There is a beach close to my house where we roam.  Even at my work there is a spot where if we get behind a certain building we start to roam.

[RobertQc]

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@ShawnC13 wrote:

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@RobertQc wrote:

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@ShawnC13 wrote:

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@Frustrated3 wrote:

I can't use my phone. Whenever I try, I get a message telling me to purchase a US roaming add on. I haven't left Canada. It does work when I am in downtown Victoria, but it doesn't work in Sooke where I live. This is a safety issue because I can't call 911. I was told to contact their "support team," but it isn't clear how you do that. Thanks.

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@RobertQc,and @computergeek541 , the user is in Canada.  Here on the Island there are many places that we would Roam to the US and that is what is happening here.  @Frustrated3 , where abouts in Sooke are you East Sooke or even out past Sooke?

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@ShawnC13  Yes I am aware of this, its a couple kilometers away from washington, hence being on tmobile/at&t, manually switching to public mobile is the solution here.

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I get areas of no service and not able to pick PM when  looking.

---

@ShawnC13 Yes, which should mean if you force manually select public mobile (during the time it is searchable), when there is no service then it wont search / connect to a partner network, it will say "no service" for that time, instead of switching to at&t / t mobile, once it picks public mobile back up it will connect only to pm

[ShawnC13]

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@RobertQc wrote:

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@ShawnC13 wrote:

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@Frustrated3 wrote:

I can't use my phone. Whenever I try, I get a message telling me to purchase a US roaming add on. I haven't left Canada. It does work when I am in downtown Victoria, but it doesn't work in Sooke where I live. This is a safety issue because I can't call 911. I was told to contact their "support team," but it isn't clear how you do that. Thanks.

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@RobertQc,and @computergeek541 , the user is in Canada.  Here on the Island there are many places that we would Roam to the US and that is what is happening here.  @Frustrated3 , where abouts in Sooke are you East Sooke or even out past Sooke?

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@ShawnC13  Yes I am aware of this, its a couple kilometers away from washington, hence being on tmobile/at&t, manually switching to public mobile is the solution here.

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I get areas of no service and not able to pick PM when  looking.

[RobertQc]

.......Unless there is some way to block specific networks while leaving auto on?

[Anonymous]

The closest point that I can figure is about 18km to a tower on the Olympic peninsula. What's the range of a cell transceiver?

 @Frustrated3: To answer the subject line...there are no charges. You would have to purposefully go in and buy the add-on to enable you to roam. But in this case why would you?

So...as per RobertQc above.

[RobertQc]

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@ShawnC13 wrote:

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@Frustrated3 wrote:

I can't use my phone. Whenever I try, I get a message telling me to purchase a US roaming add on. I haven't left Canada. It does work when I am in downtown Victoria, but it doesn't work in Sooke where I live. This is a safety issue because I can't call 911. I was told to contact their "support team," but it isn't clear how you do that. Thanks.

---

@RobertQc,and @computergeek541 , the user is in Canada.  Here on the Island there are many places that we would Roam to the US and that is what is happening here.  @Frustrated3 , where abouts in Sooke are you East Sooke or even out past Sooke?

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@ShawnC13  Yes I am aware of this, its a couple kilometers away from washington, hence being on tmobile/at&t, manually switching to public mobile is the solution here.

[ShawnC13]

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@Frustrated3 wrote:

I can't use my phone. Whenever I try, I get a message telling me to purchase a US roaming add on. I haven't left Canada. It does work when I am in downtown Victoria, but it doesn't work in Sooke where I live. This is a safety issue because I can't call 911. I was told to contact their "support team," but it isn't clear how you do that. Thanks.

---

@RobertQc,and @computergeek541 , the user is in Canada.  Here on the Island there are many places that we would Roam to the US and that is what is happening here.  @Frustrated3 , where abouts in Sooke are you East Sooke or even out past Sooke?

ETA Even on Koodo you would be Roaming the US.  My daughter recently went out there and I got an email saying she was Roaming in the US

[RobertQc]

@Frustrated3  It can be fairly common in your situation where you live right across the border to washington, especially with that weird C land layout  a coupe km away from the border and one of the other towers has really good reception or your phone is set to connect to lte preferred or something they have over the border, no big deal just remove auto network connect and manually select public mobile

[computergeek541]

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@Frustrated3 wrote:

I can't use my phone. Whenever I try, I get a message telling me to purchase a US roaming add on. I haven't left Canada. It does work when I am in downtown Victoria, but it doesn't work in Sooke where I live. This is a safety issue because I can't call 911. I was told to contact their "support team," but it isn't clear how you do that. Thanks.

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How do you know that you can't call 911? Did you need to and try to?

Calling 911 does not need any service attached, and even if you are connected to a U.S. tower and you can't otherwise call regular phone number, calling 911 should still work.  If you have to, remove your sim card before making such an emergency call, although that shouldn't be needed. 

[RobertQc]

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@Frustrated3 wrote:

I can't use my phone. Whenever I try, I get a message telling me to purchase a US roaming add on. I haven't left Canada. It does work when I am in downtown Victoria, but it doesn't work in Sooke where I live. This is a safety issue because I can't call 911. I was told to contact their "support team," but it isn't clear how you do that. Thanks.

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@Frustrated3  What network are you in? That should only be t-mobile/at&t, check your network settings and manually search / select public mobile if you are on a different network.