topic Re: Roaming in Ireland - unable to receive calls from Republic of Ireland numbers in Roaming

Roaming in Ireland - unable to receive calls from Republic of Ireland numbers

PaulONeillNW — Sun, 12 Jan 2025 14:26:51 GMT

Roaming in Ireland is "broken" for the past 5 months due to problems with EE's OCS (Online Charging System), and I wonder how many are affected by this (both Business & Consumer)?

We live close to the border, so are frequent visitors to the Republic, and have many connections on both sides of the border.
When roaming in Ireland, no-one calling from a Republic of Ireland number is able to get through. This has had somewhat profound impacts - both business and personally.
Equally, that failure is NOT communicated by way of an SMS notification, or missed call on the device. i.e. you will NOT know someone tried to call you, UNLESS they tell you after the fact. So the problem is hidden, you may be impacted without realising it.
EE has been invetigating this since August 2024, and has now identified a problem with their OCS (Online Charging System) as preventing these calls.
EE are now on their fourth attempt to fix it (at Level 2 investigations and above) - from the end of October onwards, still no resolution in sight. The lmost recent attempt was to "re-profile their Online Charging System" - however that too does not seem to have worked.

What is most annoying about this, is that we have been paying for a service which doesn't work (5 months now as of January 2025), and the efforts we have had to go to in assisting EE to investigate this have been considerable.

I wonder if there are others impacted by this, who may not have realised it, because of the fact that they get NO failure notifications....

According to EE, this is affecting users in Ireland and Denmark at least...

Re: Roaming in Ireland - unable to receive calls from Republic of Ireland numbers

bristolian — Sun, 12 Jan 2025 22:09:19 GMT

@PaulONeillNW wrote:

EE are now on their fourth attempt to fix it (at Level 2 investigations and above) - from the end of October onwards, still no resolution in sight. The lmost recent attempt was to "re-profile their Online Charging System" - however that too does not seem to have worked.

Level 2 are just a team within frontline CS, who accept particular queries that have not been resolved by basic scripted solutions. I would expect a fault ticket to have been raised and be with offline support teams for an issue such as this.

Those teams will not be customer-facing, and that fault ticket will have a reference number.

Re: Roaming in Ireland - unable to receive calls from Republic of Ireland numbers

PaulONeillNW — Mon, 13 Jan 2025 19:38:32 GMT

There is indeed a fault ticket, and internal EE Engineering tickets also, which the level 2 teams have been tracking.

Unfortunately as for solutions, well, that's a different matter!

Re: Roaming in Ireland - unable to receive calls from Republic of Ireland numbers

PaulONeillNW — Sun, 26 Jan 2025 23:15:13 GMT

26-Jan-25

Despite further suggestions that EE were planning to roll out fixes, still nothing has been accomplished and the issue is still unresolved. EE are unable to provide ANY timelines, best case / worst case/ anything.

This problem has now been in extistence for 6 months, presumably impacting multiple people when visiting Ireland, which obviously includes any EE customers from Northern Ireland / mainland UK.

It appears that it is impacting other countries also, Denmark has specifically been mentioned.

Re: Roaming in Ireland - unable to receive calls from Republic of Ireland numbers

Brendan196 — Wed, 05 Feb 2025 15:05:19 GMT

This is happening to me on 2 different phones, not getting anywhere with them only a text every month to say they are working on it. Also when receiving calls or makeing calls to UK numbers they are cut off after 5 minutes 5seconds...

Re: Roaming in Ireland - unable to receive calls from Republic of Ireland numbers

Brendan196 — Wed, 05 Feb 2025 15:13:39 GMT

Do know if this affects business plans or just private plans. Also did you get call waiting to work when roaming.

Re: Roaming in Ireland - unable to receive calls from Republic of Ireland numbers

PaulONeillNW — Wed, 05 Feb 2025 18:53:31 GMT

I too was experiencing the call cut off issue when roaming and calling back to the UK. I was actually on with EE Level 2 support and they had to keep calling me back again. So yes - this is another symptom.

To be honest, we're pretty much NOT roaming now, i.e. just go off network rather than roaming - because at least you get a text message of a missed call when you are back on EE again.

Otherwise, if you roam, you risk callers NOT geting hrough and also NOT being notified of the missed call.

Its pretty much been non-functional for 6 months now. I had a call last week from Level 2 that there was supposed to be a fix getting deployed on 3rd Feb (possibly, but not guanrantted) - so I'm expecting another call back from EE to see what actually happened (if anything).

Re: Roaming in Ireland - unable to receive calls from Republic of Ireland numbers

PaulONeillNW — Wed, 05 Feb 2025 18:56:06 GMT

It impacts both business and consumer plans ( which is what my partner and i have between us).

Unsure on the "call waiting" aspect, because as I explained - we just dont switch to an RoI network now, at least we know then if there's a missed call from Republic of Ireland customers (which are the biggest concenn for us).

Re: Roaming in Ireland - unable to receive calls from Republic of Ireland numbers

Brendan196 — Wed, 05 Feb 2025 22:53:02 GMT

I'm only getting a text but got loads of promises. It's is worse than no
phone because people think your ignoring them because you can't see any
record of a call. They won't let you out of contract unless you pay. Also
do you have call waiting when roaming it's never worked for me. Do you know
if you have a business contract does it work.

Re: Roaming in Ireland - unable to receive calls from Republic of Ireland numbers

Brendan196 — Wed, 05 Feb 2025 22:57:02 GMT

Call waiting never worked for me and was told it's up to roaming partners
.eir. at least I'm no alone.

Re: Roaming in Ireland - unable to receive calls from Republic of Ireland numbers

PaulONeillNW — Thu, 06 Feb 2025 10:01:31 GMT

The problems are down to their OCS (Online Charging System) - it is stopping calls getting through at the outset - so this would probably mean that anything like missed call / call waiting etc wouldnt work. On the "lots of promises" front - I hear you, been there already. It is a serious problem for exactly the reason you outline, people think you are ignoring them, when you have no idea they tried to contact you.

Did you raise a complaint? In which case they need to have a resolution within a certain period , otherwise it goes to the ombudsman as deadlocked.

We've been through that now on the business phone (as that was under contract), and even prior to that, we also had a verbal offer from EE just to return the phone and exit the contract, however they won't discuss compensation until the problem is fixed or we leave.

The other (consumer) phone is now out of contract - so free to leave.

Basically we're in the last chance saloon with EE, waiting to hear about their latest "fix"

Re: Roaming in Ireland - unable to receive calls from Republic of Ireland numbers

Brendan196 — Thu, 06 Feb 2025 20:38:02 GMT

I'm soon out of contract but it's a pity because the coverage is good.
there are plenty of people who are having problems but if they don't roam
often it's not worth the hassle of reporting it. I find it hard to believe
that a team can't fix it in 4 months. I'd hoped a business contract would
work but obviously not. Thanks for your information.

Re: Roaming in Ireland - unable to receive calls from Republic of Ireland numbers

PaulONeillNW — Fri, 07 Feb 2025 11:23:01 GMT

Its been broken since August '24 - i.e. 6 months now, apparently when EE introduced the new Online Charging System (OCS) which was intended to eliminate people getting billed for old calls when roaming, when in fact it has stopped calls getting through entirely.

I expect there are LOTS of people who are affected by this - but dont realise it, particularly if they only roam occasionally.

The fact that calls from the UK will get through, but not RoI calls (when someone is roaming) would probably mask the problem for many., who would just put some calls not getting through down to network coverage issues - when it has nothing to do with that.

Re: Roaming in Ireland - unable to receive calls from Republic of Ireland numbers

Brendan196 — Fri, 07 Feb 2025 13:36:02 GMT

But it will work maybe 1-3 days per month which is strange. If you only
occasionally roam you might not know also it took 10 calls to get problem
raised to level 2 and another week before it went to the next level. So not
worth the stress if you don't need it every day. I've had to get another
SIM to keep me going but no point paying for EE if it doesn't work. I
don't think it's going to be fixed soon.

Re: Roaming in Ireland - unable to receive calls from Republic of Ireland numbers

PaulONeillNW — Fri, 07 Feb 2025 13:37:25 GMT

Just had another call from L2 at EE.

"Proposed fix" that was scheduled on 3-Feb has been deferred to 14th February (at least) - proposed fix has now slipped multiple times
They wanted me to get more call examples to test (I last provided examples at Christmas time, showing it wasnt working and so they could investigate further
I questioned WHYthey need more test data, given they haven't released any fixes in the interim. i.e. how is test data going to help, if no changes have been deployed in the interim.
Moreover, either they have a fix waiting to be deployed OR they are still investigating - their explanations make no sense

The L2 rep couldn't explain the thinking behind the request. All in all, it provides zero confidence that they know what they are doing OR have a handle on the issue.

Re: Roaming in Ireland - unable to receive calls from Republic of Ireland numbers

Dervvvgx — Mon, 24 Feb 2025 18:05:03 GMT

Hi,

did you ever have any response from this or was it resolved? I’m currently having the same issue, I’m connected to Eir whilst in Ireland and have been fine receiving calls up until now - now Irish republic numbers can’t call me but people in the uk can.

Re: Roaming in Ireland - unable to receive calls from Republic of Ireland numbers

PaulONeillNW — Tue, 25 Feb 2025 12:46:07 GMT

Latest EE attempt to fix this was rolled out on 14-Feb, however that hasn't fixed the issue either.

Over the past week and a half I've had further calls with EE Level 2 (on behalf of the CI - Complex Investigations team) who have requested additional examples of the service not working, so they can try again to troubleshoot where the problem is.

As you indicate, the fact that incoming UK calls can be received when roaming, and also outgoing calls work, makes this difficult to spot that there even is a problem.

Re: Roaming in Ireland - unable to receive calls from Republic of Ireland numbers

PaulONeillNW — Tue, 04 Mar 2025 11:46:09 GMT

Update 4th March 2025

EE's update to their Online Charging System (OCS) as of 14-Feb has NOT resolved the problem, and have been asked to provide further examples for testing purposes.
EE have been trying to engage the software vendor who provides their OCS billing system, however they are proving unresponsive, i.e. not engaging with technical staff at EE to try to resolve issues.
The impact on users is not restricted to Ireland, its also being felt further afield (Europe, Asia)

The net effect of this is that the problem is unresolved, and resolution now seems to be stuck in a deteriorating relationship between EE and their software supplier. I won't be surprised if it ends up in a commercial / legal dispute between EE and their software supplier.

Having worked in the software industry for years - unless there is a marked change in vendor relationships, this could drag on for months, if not years - because replacing a system like this takes time to rip out, select a new replacement vendor and integrate the new software into their billing stack.

Re: Roaming in Ireland - unable to receive calls from Republic of Ireland numbers

Brendan196 — Wed, 05 Mar 2025 10:11:45 GMT

Thanks for the update I just get a text every week telling me it's still not fixed and will call when it's sorted. I can't get any info when I call.

Re: Roaming in Ireland - unable to receive calls from Republic of Ireland numbers

PaulONeillNW — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 15:04:37 GMT

Latest Update - 27-March-25

Problems laid at the door of EE's OCS Software Supplier (Online Charging System)
The software is causing problems with various countries and in different ways - i.e. its quite extesnive
The software supplier's focus is on supporting the imminent price uplift (CPI - Consumer Price Index) annual price increases, rather than fixing the problems that have been happening for months.
The latter is no doubt"reassuring" for EE customers to know that they will "successfully" be charged more for the service, when the service is not operating as expected.
EE/BT have no apparent "plan B" - they seem to be stuck with this supplier, hoping they can fix their billing software which is currently preventing roaming calls (and undoubtedly other services - data ...)

I expect that if BT/EE were losing money as a result of this software - that it would have been fixed by now - but because its customers being impacted - well that's a different matter.