topic Re: Roaming turn off in Mobile Services

Re: Roaming turn off

Hetalchohan — Fri, 18 Aug 2023 10:19:09 GMT

Hi,

I'm travelling abroad today and I would like to turn off my roaming data and incoming calls and texts..please advise how I can do this.

Re: Re: Roaming turn off

bristolian — Fri, 18 Aug 2023 10:41:10 GMT

If you enable your phone's flight mode, it will only be usable on WiFi connections and won't use any mobile network outside the UK.

Re: Re: Roaming turn off

_MrR_ — Fri, 18 Aug 2023 10:42:12 GMT

Hey there,

I’m in South Africa and am dual sim with a local sim.

I have:
1. Turned off voicemail by dialling ##002# (dial as a number)
2. Set my spend cap to zero

Now if anyone rings me. They hear a message saying not available.

Just means I do get signal and can receive texts (eg bank) but brilliantly, it doesn’t let me access data without buying an add on.

Assume you’re travelling outside of Europe too?

Re: Re: Roaming turn off

Jimbo150 — Tue, 02 Jan 2024 10:26:12 GMT

@_MrR_Fascinating reply, and apologies for replying to an old post.

I would be interested to know if in addition to your settings above, you also had 'Data Roaming' enabled on your phone.

I suppose (in theory), since there is no inclusive data allowance outside the EU, the £0 spend cap should prevent any data costs being incurred unless an add on is purchased...

Re: Re: Roaming turn off

_MrR_ — Tue, 02 Jan 2024 10:36:17 GMT

Hey @Jimbo150

Hope you’re well.
The brilliant thing about EE roaming is that you need add-ons to access the internet abroad.
So even if you do leave roaming on. You’ll just get a random text telling you to buy an add on

I compare it to Vodafone where even with data roaming switched off. I’d occasionally get told I’d been charged £6 for a tiny bit of data.
But with your spend cap being set to zero. You’ll be fine.

Re: Re: Roaming turn off

Jimbo150 — Tue, 02 Jan 2024 10:52:15 GMT

@_MrR_thank you for this! I thought that might be the case... presumably as you found with data roaming on?

I had a similar-ish query recently (HERE) and it turns out that as my account has a £0 spend cap, I would not have needed to restrict access to EU only. Great to know it works in practice.

In fact, that might possibly work for voicemail too (so no need to switch off VM). Reason - no incoming call costs are possible under a £0 cap, so the call would divert straight to VM (instead of a caller getting 'not available') and there's also the possibility that if Visual VM is enabled, the voicemail might download anyway using the data from the local SIM.

Might (be brave enough) to try next time I'm outside the EU...

Re: Re: Roaming turn off

_MrR_ — Tue, 02 Jan 2024 11:05:44 GMT

You could divert all your incoming calls to VM before you leave the UK to guarantee you get the result you’re looking for

Re: Re: Roaming turn off

Jimbo150 — Tue, 02 Jan 2024 11:09:34 GMT

Good point. Any VM retrieval could then be via Skype using data from local SIM to listen.

Thanks again @_MrR_ !