No network connectivity in USA

[AmericanAbroad2]

I’ve arrived to the US yesterday quite late and haven’t been able to connect to a mobile network for more than 30 seconds or so at a given time. I’ve tried power cycling (10+ times) and manually selecting each of the available networks, and changed to only allowing 4g connectivity. Nothing is working, it just keeps reverting to “SOS” connectivity…

I’ve had this issue once before while traveling in Europe, and ee support did something remotely that fixed the problem, but I have no way of calling support. Any help/guidance would be great…

[XRaySpeX]

@AmericanAbroad2 : 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.

[AmericanAbroad2]

Per my post:

1. Roaming has been/is activated on my EE account. Only oddity is that I never received the roaming text from EE (which is also what happened in Sicily when EE had to manually do something remotely).

2. I have power cycled my phone at least 10 times and manually tried selecting every available network, all with no success.

To your other questions, I am under contract and have the Roam Further add-odd included in my plan. And I’ve used this SIM and device to make calls and texts while in the UK. Will try calling on Skype…

[XRaySpeX]

How do you know roaming has been/is activated on your EE account or what have you done to make it so? I see nowt in your OP that says it has.

[bristolian]

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 0798586 using a web-calling app such as Skype over WiFi.