topic Re: activate while abroad in Roaming

activate while abroad

jupes — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 09:39:27 GMT

How can I activate whilst abroad without using someone else’s phone to call? Surely there is some way I can do it online?

Re: activate while abroad

bristolian — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 08:02:58 GMT

Regardless of any billing add-on, your ability to get coverage abroad (which calls, texts & mobile data rely on) is dependent on roaming being activated - which allows your phone to connect to foreign networks.

Have you used your phone abroad previously, did you receive a welcome text message on first arrival abroad? These are good evidence of roaming being enabled if so. In these cases, manually cycling through all available local networks often resolves issues - toggling flight mode can have the same effect.

If not...On PAYG, roaming is auto-enabled once your phone is used in the UK first. On pay-monthly, this needs to be enabled manually - usually by texting ROAMING to 150 before leaving the UK. Did you do this?

If you are on pay-monthly and now find yourself abroad without having enabled roaming, your only recourse will be to contact CS to request it activated. You can either contact +44 7953 966150 from another working phone, or +44 800 9566000 using a web-calling app such as Skype over WiFi.

Re: activate while abroad

jupes — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 19:57:36 GMT

Thanks, not sure how I only saw this now! Since I last posted I have continued to have the same issues when using phone abroad. Roaming is enabled, I always receive messages welcoming me to the country and search through the available networks to see if I can improve access. The main issue is making calls and sending text messages (not imessages). I can use data no problem, but even when in an emergency I was unable to call the emergency services. I spoke to EE when I returned and they said roaming was enabled, no spend cap etc and couldn't explain why I can't make calls to UK or EU numbers while abroad. It is not just frustrating, but could be very dangerous if in an emergency situation again without someone else there with a functional phone.

Re: activate while abroad

jupes — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 20:00:27 GMT

Would love to know how to solve this issue. I have had the same issue a number of times in EU and spoke to customer services afterwards when home and they couldn't explain why I couldn't make calls. Everything was enabled that needed to be. I needed to make an emergency call and couldn't. Fortunately I was with someone whose phone worked fully. In future I might not be. Reading this forum it does look like it is a common issue.

Re: activate while abroad

Leanne_T — Fri, 17 Apr 2026 09:14:34 GMT

Hi there @jupes

Thanks for coming back to the community.

I'm sorry this is still happening when you're roaming. If the team have checked everything is correctly set up at our end, have you tried looking for alternative available networks when you're abroad?

If so and you still have the same problem, we would need to run further troubleshooting to see what could be the issue. To do this, you would need to get back in touch with our tech guides from another phone when roaming so they can fully investigate this.

Leanne.