Roaming in Cairns, Australia SOS Only

[registerd]

I'm on a 2 year contract and paying monthly... Unlimited Data.   Iphone 14 ESIM.

Enabled AU Roaming via SMS to 150 weeks prior to departure.  Confirmed via SMS reply. 

Arrived in AU and ensured ROAMING enabled on Phone.

Carrier set to Auto select.

...... Perhaps Roaming WAS NOT ADDED??? ....... (not sure that i see a confirmation)

Rebooted Phone.

Budget set to $50.

Nothing is working.

VPN back to UK and WIFI calling not working either.   No way to reach 150 via SMS now.

EE - You need to staff support for customers who are roaming abroad.  

Need Solution.

[registerd]

WHY Can I NOT turn on ROAMING via the APP??

[XRaySpeX]

The Roam Abroad Pass is just a billing add-on to save you money whilst roaming. It does not give you the ability to use your phone whilst roaming. That is achieved by texting ROAMING to 150 before leaving the UK or by calling CS which you can do now by using the Freephone no. in my sig. using Skype over WiFi. 

[registerd]

Anyone know how to accomplish the same as texting roaming to 150 via the APP?   Or how to enable WIFI calling under the above conditions so I can text ROAMING to 150? 

[XRaySpeX]

Too late! You're no longer in the UK. 

[bristolian]

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@registerd wrote:

Enabled AU Roaming via SMS to 150 weeks prior to departure.  Confirmed via SMS reply. 

Arrived in AU and ensured ROAMING enabled on Phone.

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Can you confirm exactly how you did this?

As already identified, adding a billing add-on does not automatically enable international roaming. It is that which gives your phone permission to connect to foreign networks. Without doing that, you do cause the Catch-22 situation you now appear to find yourself in.

The menu option on your phone you refer to, is very likely "data roaming" which simply means "can I use mobile data whilst roaming", there's no similar option for voice-roaming or text-roaming, but they would be the equivalent. You still need to be able to roam, to do any of these.

If roaming is not enabled, your only recourse will now be to contact EE CS from another means, such as using Skype over a working WiFi-internet connection.

[registerd]

Resolved via call into customer care in the UK during their normal business hours.

Problems were 1) I'm a newer customer.  2) I had defaulted roaming abroad to EU.   

Resolution.  ROAM Abroad to the EU had to be removed and ROAM to AU allowed.    A deposit of $25 GBP was required.

Resolution on handset.  Toggled network from AUTO to each network until service lit on 4G of OPTUS.  Toggled back to AUTO and OPTUS held as enabled.  

Service confirmed with text messages welcoming me to roaming.

[registerd]

This is not the solution - see solution above.  How did I do this - via SMS to 150 prior to departing the UK.

[bristolian]

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@registerd wrote:

This is not the solution - see solution above.  How did I do this - via SMS to 150 prior to departing the UK.

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So for reference, the advice in my post was the solution you followed. For the benefit of others reading this thread who may be in a similar scenario..

The OP in this case had European roaming enabled, not global roaming - meaning that outside the EU, roaming was not active. This caused a catch-22 scenario often seen on this forum, that no connectivity to local networks abroad prevents outgoing calls to CS. This is why it is crucial to check before leaving the UK, by texting ROAMING to 150 - this automatically checks global roaming, not EU-specific permissions.