Making calls from the USA

[Philwiper]

I’ve just arrived in the US and can’t make or receive calls. I’ve reset the phone, got roaming, not on airplane mode, roaming is on etc etc. I’ve tried to get help from EE but ended with a message that said call 150 (I can’t) or call 07953966250 from another phone (after the long menu I go into a 20 minute hold to speak to an operator - on an international call from someone else’s phone). There’s no way of communicating with EE to solve the problem. The “messaging service is not available for this topic”.

Anyone got any ideas?

[bristolian]

Does your phone show a connection to any US networks? That would be the basis for making/receiving calls, sending or receiving text messages, or using mobile data.

When you say "got roaming", how did you enable this? Or what is your basis for saying roaming is enabled? If you don't have coverage of any US networks, that is generally a symptom of roaming not being enabled.

[XRaySpeX]

Are you on contract or PAYG? Did you use that SIM for making calls or texts in UK before you left to go abroad?

If you are on contract, did you activate roaming on your EE a/c before you left UK by texting ROAMING to 150? Having a roaming billing add-on doesn't of itself activate roaming on your a/c. Having roaming activated on your EE a/c, not just on your device, is crucial to using your contract SIM abroad.

Often just rebooting the phone is the simple remedy. Also try selecting a network manually rather than auto. Otherwise you need to call CS to get your roaming activated. Try calling CS on the Freephone no. in my sig. on Skype over WiFi. It should be free.