Phone not working in the US

[rbk201]

Sorry if this is long - I have been trying to solve this for 5 days now! 

I added a roaming package to my plan before travelling. When I arrived in the US I received a text to say "While you’re in the United States thanks to your Roaming Pass you can use your plan, minutes, texts and data allowance at no extra cost.” However, I can only use my apps and send and receive text and WhatsApp messages when I'm on Wifi. I can't make or receive any calls, even when I have Wifi. I texted ROAMING to 150 and got a reply that said "Your plan doesn’t include roaming in the USA" even though I can clearly see it on my account. 

I have tried phoning EE four times! And because I can't make calls from my phone, i had to use a phone belonging to someone in the US who has now been charged over $100 for my calls! I have the email addresses of two of the EE customer support agents I spoke to but neither of them will email me back now. 

Mobile data is ON, Roaming is ON. Network selection is automatic and it only finds T-Mobile. When I try to manually select another network such as AT&T, it goes to SOS mode. I tried switching from 5G to 4G. I tried setting a spend cap. I have tried turning my phone off for 10 minutes and back on again. I honestly don't know what to do. 

[Leanne_T]

Hi @rbk201 

Please give us a call on the numbers provided, and our tech guides will get this looked into for you. 

Leanne.

[Vinvinko]

I had exactly the same problem when I was in LA in June and July 2024. I go there every six months and have never had the problem before. It was as if the phone had trouble getting a signal. It worked intermittently but mostly not and made the trip very difficult. Did you ever get the problem resolved? I'd be very interested to know. My daughter has an account with O2, she's in LA now and has had no problem

[rbk201]

After many hours on the phone with EE, they managed to get it partly fixed. I was able to use my roaming data to use apps even when not on Wifi and I was able to text or message on WhatsApp. I still couldn't make actual calls. I'm going back again in October so it will be interesting to see what happens then. 

[Vinvinko]

You’re like me, going every six months. Would be very interested to know how it goes next time you’re there! 🙂

Sent from my iPhone

[chrishammond]

I spend a lot of time in the U.S.  (mainly NY) and can confirm that the roaming situation seems a lot better now as of November 2024. Roaming on AT&T seems to be working again, which was broken for a while, so 5G and VoLTE work. Roaming on T-Mobile US was forced for a while and I always had issues with calls, texts, and mobile data performance on T-Mobile.

Unfortunately I'm being billed for phone calls I make out in the U.S. even though I have the Roam Abroad pass on my plan. Apparently thousands of people were affected by this (some billing system bug), but instead of getting the refund I was promised I've instead continued to be charged for calls 3 or 4 billing cycles in a row.