topic URGENT: Barred in India - Paid for Zone 1 Pass in Roaming

URGENT: Barred in India - Paid for Zone 1 Pass

nishchalp — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 05:13:34 GMT

Had to travel to India in an emergency for a funeral. Have paid for a 7-day zone 1 pass, but data connections are so slow it feels irrelevant.

More importantly, my phone is still barred from making phone calls making it impossible to call anyone let alone EE!

Have borrowed a laptop but cannot reach a human via the bot or the EE app.

This is insane! Why completely block customers, especially in times of need.

Re: URGENT: Barred in India - Paid for Zone 1 Pass

XRaySpeX — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 07:14:21 GMT

Did you receive a Welcome text upon arrival?

Are you on contract or PAYG? Had you used that SIM for making calls or texts in UK before leaving to go abroad?

If you are on contract, did you activate roaming on your EE a/c before leaving 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 if you are on contract you need to call CS to get your roaming activated. Try calling CS on the Freephone no. in my sig. using a web-calling app over WiFi.

Re: URGENT: Barred in India - Paid for Zone 1 Pass

bristolian — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 08:02:43 GMT

If you have a mobile data connection, you're roaming on a local network and thus the references in the previous post to activating roaming, are irrelevant.

Manually selecting an alternative local network is absolutely the way to go initially. You mention that your phone is barred from making calls - what specifically makes you think this is the case? And are you not able to make any calls, or are you able to call in-country but not back to the UK? This would make a difference to the potential cause.

Re: URGENT: Barred in India - Paid for Zone 1 Pass

XRaySpeX — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 08:15:57 GMT

Unless you are using data over the WiFi from your Hotel or local cafes. 😉