Strange roaming text

[AdrianL13]

I received the following message today:

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Hi from EE, Welcome to Jersey, you'll pay £2.29 per day to use your minutes, texts and data allowance.

Calls to countries outside the EU (not including the UK) are £1.86 per min and texts 76p each. Other charges are the same as when you're in the UK.

For the best network coverage your handset must automatically select a network. To do this, choose your phone from: http://ee.co.uk/help/phones-and-device next select 'Connectivity' then 'Selecting Network'.

Call +447953966250 for Customer Services & 112 in case of emergency. Have a good trip!

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This was odd as I was in Wiltshire on the UK mainland. Did anyone else get this?  I’m assuming it was a network error but would like confirmation this was the case.  

[bristolian]

That's the standard welcome text message you receive when you first connect to a foreign network, and it's not unusual to receive these in border locations where your home network doesn't provide coverage but a foreign network does. In these cases the text serves as a warning that you are roaming.

Picking up a Jersey network in Wiltshire is unusual though. Where in Wiltshire were you?

If your phone shows a connection to EE-UK, there is no cause for concern.

[AdrianL13]

Thanks for your reply.

I've had these messages when on the south coast (Dover, or Isle of Wight) but I was at  Stourhead which is 130 miles from Jersey.  If the local network was unreachable then I'd be very surprised if a connection could be made to Jersey.  

I've got my spending cap set to £0 so no chance of any roaming charges thankfully.

[Chris_B]

@AdrianL13  if a local network wasn’t reachable and you receive that message then yes you made a connection to that Jersey network. 

[MaureenJ1]

Hi I had this very same message about charges while in Jersey but I was at Stourhead National Trust.

My husband is on another network & had a similar message about EU charging.  It was very odd

[NJL88]

This has just happened to me -

Driving through the Stourhead estate where the normal phone signal is patchy to non existent. Got home to see the welcome to Jersey message that you had plus a simimultaneous one welcoming me home! What on earth is going on for a Jersey phone signal at Stourhead! Adrian - did you get charged or get any follow up from ee? 

[AdrianL13]

It happened to me again in October, definitely something odd going on.

I didn't get charged but I've got my spending cap set to £0 so shouldn't get any roaming charges.  

There's been no official follow-up from EE.

There was a planning consultation last year for a new mast at Stourhead but nothing has come of that as far as I can tell, if it happens then hopefully EE will use the mast and stop these Jersey roaming problems.

[bristolian]

From a search of the (not very user-friendly as LPA's go) Wiltshire planning portal, I can't see any evidence of an application for new telecoms sites around Stourhead - as welcome as better coverage would be, I rather suspect this could be contentious locally.

It's certainly unusual for a Channel Islands network to be reaching that distance, but not impossible given the right conditions.

[AdrianL13]

There is a little info in the Stourton PC meeting minutes, it was a pre-application consultation for telephone mast at Bonham Farm Buildings, with reference CTIL_307072.  I saw the documents (maps etc) on the PC noticeboard in Stourton.  It seems that since the consultation the applicant (Clarke Telecom) has not responded to any requests for further information from the parish council, however the residents in the village do want better mobile coverage.

[AdrianL13]

For more information see https://stourton.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/Planning-Agenda-31-October-2023.pdf .  This includes maps, plans for the mast, etc.