I’ve paid for roam abroad pass and the phone isn’t working and I can’t call EE

[bisi3]

Hi 

how do I get my phone to work having followed all EE instructions. I’m abroad and can’t call. The website has also been useless in helping to find other ways of contacting EE. 

[Schockwave]

Hello @bisi3 ,

Welcome to the community,

Where are you abroad?

Are you on pay as you go or monthly contract? If on monthly contract, did you enable roaming on your account? If on pay as you go, this is automatically enabled.

Did you receive the welcome message. Sometimes just rebooting your phone will work.

You will have to ring customer service to enable roaming if on monthly contract, you can’t act customer service if you have something like Skype for free, see my signature. 

[bristolian · Accepted solution]

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.

On PAYG, this 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..

[XRaySpeX]

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

If you are on contract, did you activate roaming on your EE a/c before you left 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 you need to call CS to get your roaming activated. Try calling CS on the Freephone no. in my sig. on Skype over WiFi. It should be free.