Roaming in Chicago only works on LTE

[TorontoTim]

On a US/Can 5G PM plan and can confirm after moving from a Can/US Telus plan, 5G roaming does NOT work in Chicago on PM.

You have to force LTE only under roaming on an iPhone at least to have a reliable connection.

Fast enough but a hassle and may drive me to go to another carrier.

[TorontoTim]

I’m in the US 25-50% of every month.

Manually selecting T Mobile solved the issue with 5G.

The disappointment isn’t that AT&T 5G doesn’t work.  It’s that the “automatic” default settings don’t work and it’s not just slow, it’s zero data.  It just doesn’t function unless you go in and either select LTE or TMO as a carrier.

Not a big deal and now I know, but it shouldn’t need to be tweaked to function. 

[DennyCrane]

T-Mobile 5G works, but AT&T 5G does not. I think it all ties back to previously losing AT&T roaming access altogether for a year or so. Finally last fall it came back online for us again, but 5G AT&T has not worked.

To each their own, but this would hardly be a reason for me to leave a carrier. Especially if I only periodically travel to the US. In everyday use you won't notice a difference, as both are throttled anyway. And if you really want 5G you can manually connect to T-Mobile.

[Phil_Adelphus]

@TorontoTim  Did you try T-Mobile on 5G?  Others have said it can work as opposed to AT&T which often doesn't without dropping to LTE.

[hairbag1]

@TorontoTim 

you must have known then, that PM is poor child of Telus. Without being disrespectful...why did you opt for PM over Telus then.  You must have been well aware of the Public Mobile credo...

[TorontoTim]

Was never an issue with my Telus Can/US plan nor my AT&T can/us plan.  Never had to force LTE vs 5G and is an unacceptable quirk given PM is effectively Telus.  Full disclosure I’ve been in the telecom industry for 30 years almost half of which was with Telus mobility.

[hairbag1]

@TorontoTim 

that's a common issue for the Canada / US plans while in US. It's recommended you de-select 5G and select 4G or LTE. Then you'll be able to use T-MObile or AT&T...never Verizon or any others. For talk, you really need a volte enabled phone as the US has shut down their 3G.