Mobile Calling not working in Australia?

[Allon1us]

I upgraded to the sim plan I had on my Samsung phone to "Full Works SIM" which is £53 per month, as I was promised it would work for calls and data in Australia.

I have arrived now in Australia, and haven't been able to make a single phone call all day. The phone doesn't even ring! I did receive a text from EE advising I can use data and calls, but I am only able to use the data. For whever reason calling doesn't work.

I have increased my spend cap - and on the way to Australia, my phone worked perfectly fine in Singapore. I have tried aboslutely everything on my mobile phone to get it to work, but to no avail.

My wife is in the exactly same predicament, with her apple phone. And she gets data but no calls at all. 
This can't be an isolated incident as we are both independantly on separate plans and mobile devices. Is there any resolution at all for this?

[bristolian]

The presence of an eSIM unfortunately rules out a 2way SIM-swap - one of the downsides of electronic rather than physical SIM, for sure.

The purpose of the SIM is primarily to authenticate the user-equipment onto the network. If coverage is displayed, then the local core has verified your eligibility to connect, and thus allowed the radio network to attach. In simple terms!

As to whether there's anything different between eSIM & pSIM, that's beyond my expertise. I seem to recall there were some issues with roaming on eSIM in the very early days, and I dare say they're provisioned differently... but I would not want to comment further.

[Schockwave]

@Allon1us , on the IPhone, could you go to settings, then scroll down to phone and then scroll down to dial assist and see if that makes a difference.

You would definitely need the prefix of the country when ringing each other abroad, at least I would have thought.

[bristolian]

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@Schockwave wrote:

You would definitely need the prefix of the country when ringing each other abroad, at least I would have thought.

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In theory, both yes & no.

The core network can route based on originating SIM-serial number as much as dialled number. So a UK-EE SIM can have +44 added, and leading zeros dropped, if the dialled number is not in a local-format but "could" be in a UK format (the local network would have no means of knowing)

In practice.... it can be a lot safer to dial using +44 and is one of the first things to eliminate.

[Allon1us]

As an update, I went and got a telstra  esim in my wifes iphone 16, and am now able to call her off my UK number to her UK ee number while we are both in Australia. She does require two esims, but when it comes to troubleshooting, even getting the cheapest possible mobile minutes plan from a local provider seems to have enabled the calls to recognise receiving them in Australia. 

[Ritu_D]

Hi @Allon1us 

Thanks for coming back with an update. 

I am pleased to hear you can now call your wife's number. 

Enjoy Australia. 

Ritu 

[Allon1us]

Thanks to everyone for pitching in and helping. It was a big hill to climb, especially with the multitude of issues. Reading peoples historic messages never felt like there was any closure to the issue, as many didnt respond back. But hopefully this will be a good reference document to help others experiencing the same issue to get on track!

[bristolian]

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@Allon1us wrote:

Reading peoples historic messages never felt like there was any closure to the issue, as many didnt respond back.

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This is a constant problem with many web fora...

Posting with a problem, and either not posting back to say "this is how I sorted it", or "all sorted now thanks anyway" but not explaining how.

It never helps other users wanting help, nor do regular users learn what works and what doesn't...