Roaming Barely working in USA

[vern33333333]

I was recently in the USA and Canada. I have the roam further smart benefit, so I was set to use my mobile data in these places. I've used it before and it worked well.

Unfortunately, this time, it was awful when it came to the USA (worked fine in Canada). When I first landed in the USA, there was no message detailing "welcome to the USA... here are our rates", which I thought was weird. Then, it just didn't connect to any cell towers, and I was unable to get any mobile data or cell connection to even call numbers. This continued for 2 days, until I went to Canada, where it started working just fine.

We then went to California, and I finally got the welcome text. Thought this was a good sign. But, then my phone would connect intermittently. Basically, the times we needed it to connect to use maps or get somewhere, it didn't work. But when we were just chilling and didn't need it, it didn't work. 

Throughout the whole time, I switched my phone between automatically selecting the right network and manually selecting the network. Neither worked, even though there was clear 4G signal on the network that was providing my Edge service or not connecting at all. I would think that in SF there'd be a strong signal, but that didn't seem to be the case. 

I looked through the EE phone base and reset all my wifi settings, which messed up everything when we got back. It didn't work. I tried switching on and off airplane mode with no avail.

It was super frustrating especially since one of the only reasons I selected the plan I'm on is for the roaming benefit. I couldn't believe I paid for that and it didn't work... It was frustrating beyond belief. I constantly wondered if we were going to be able to get somewhere or get home due to lack of data. Nightmare

[Schockwave]

Hello @vern33333333 , 

Welcome to the community,

Did you switched your phone off and back on?

Could you check in settings either via the website or My EE App to make sure that roaming, call abroad and premium calls are enabled? 

Unfortunately, this is not down to EE but this has to do with networks in other countries. Wifi settings will have nothing to do with data etc.

I take it you are back in the UK? Have you managed to sort out your wifi settings and is everything working ok now?

You should have had good signal there, not sure why not, that does seem strange.

[vern33333333]

Yes, I switched off and on my phone multiple times.

By reset wifi, I mean network settings via Settings -> System -> reset
options -> reset wifi, mobile & bluetooth.

Roaming was enabled. I even disabled it and enabled it with it doing
absolutely nothing.

[Leanne_T]

Hi @vern33333333

If you get in touch with our tech gurus by calling 150, they will get this looked into from our end for you and make sure everything is set up correctly. 

Leanne. 

[vern33333333]

Yeah, I can give them a call, but doubt it will show anything as I was still getting data intermittently. 

I should've noted that we used my sim in my partners phone, iPhone 13, and it was exhibiting the same behaviour.

[Leanne_T]

Thanks @vern33333333

The team will get this investigated and may suggest a replacement SIM card if this followed the SIM. 

Leanne.

[vern33333333]

After contacting EE tech support, they confirmed there was nothing wrong with my setup. The SIM is working fine in the UK, so it lead them to rule that out.

They did look up history and saw an enormous amount of faults when connecting in the USA. 

Unfortunately, since it's working fine now, and I'm no longer in the UK, they couldn't try and fix the specific problem. The advised that I needed to contact them when I was experiencing the problem. Tough to do if I didn't have a data / cell connection and the online chat was out of hours and didn't respond. 

But, at least they acknowledged the problem, offered a form of compensation, and advised on what to do in the future. Disappointing, but that's the situation

[Leanne_T]

Thanks for coming back and letting me know @vern33333333

Leanne. 

[hedleypiper]

Failing to provide the service must put EE out of contract.  Do not pay , or expect a refund.

Our Wifi reduces to 0.02 mbs intermittently daily or during the evenings.  frustrating when working and when relaxing.

[chistery]

What phone have you got?

In NYC at the weekend, I was only able to log onto AT&T. Whilst it showed 5G, it wasn't great speeds, but that's not EEs fault. AT&T has always been poor but it does seem that roaming partners are being reduced in America.