Making and receiving calls while abroad

[Emmalyn]

Hi,

I have purchased a roaming pass for 7 days and upgraded my phone plan to indclude roaming which will take place on 26th April. I am currently in Australia and though my wifi is working I am unable to make or receive calls, but can receive text. I have reset my network, my data roaming is on and I do not have airplane mode on, but its still not working. I'm trying to contact a uk number as I have issues with accommodation booked but am unable to.

I can't contact EE as the AI chat doesn't understand, there's no email I can contact and I can't call or receive calls from EE. So I'm completely stuck.

Please can you help.

Thanks 

[Schockwave]

Hello @Emmalyn ,

Welcome to the community,

I take it you are on contract with EE? You did activate roaming on your account? 

Did you receive the welcome message from EE? If you did then I would suggest doing a manual search for a network.

You can contact customer service by using something like Skype, see my signature.

[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. Data roaming is simply a phone setting enabling the use of mobile data whilst already roaming.

If you can receive texts, you have a local network connection and are thus roaming. In these cases, manually cycling through all available local networks often resolves issues - toggling flight mode can have the same effect.

What happens when you try making a call?

[XRaySpeX]

Did you receive a Welcome text upon arrival?

As 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 if you are on contract 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.

[bristolian]

Have you been able to make calls in Australia previously on this trip? Can you make calls to in-country (Australian) numbers?