No net work coverage in the Caribbean- no option to roam ?

[Ladyvic69]

I am currently in Sint Maarten ( Dutch Caribbean) I always roam and I have no coverage ( my husband is with same provider and has coverage) I am not very technical but I know my roaming is on. I also noticed that I did not receive the usual welcome message saying how much calls / texts etc would be - not when I arrived here , or when transiting thru Miami. Any ideas of what is going on ? Thank you 

[Chris_B]

@Ladyvic69  Did you text ROAMING to 150 before you left the UK ?   No network coverage suggests that roaming is not enabled on your EE account.   but if it is enabled have you tried just restarting the device? 

[Ladyvic69]

No I did not - I travel a lot and never text before i fly. My husbands phone is working but mine is not ( same provider )
Thanks for responding
Sent from my iPhone

[bristolian · Accepted solution]

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.

Have you used your phone abroad previously, did you receive a welcome text message on first arrival abroad? These are good evidence of roaming being enabled if so. In these cases, manually cycling through all available local networks often resolves issues - toggling flight mode can have the same effect.

If not...On PAYG, roaming 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 9566000 using a web-calling app such as Skype over WiFi.

[Matt_124]

It may be that your phone has not been correctly set up for roaming. 

By texting ROAMING and then GOING this enables your phone to pick up coverage while Roaming worldwide, and is separate to any billing addon. This needs to be done before travelling in the UK.

In the past there has been a ROAMEU option which allows roaming in EU countries only, in order to prevent certain scenarios where customers were incorrectly charged for connecting to a foreign network (such as Cyprus and Northern Cyprus (Turkey)).

As you are currently abroad, you would need to contact EE to enable the Roaming facility as the text codes will not work. You should be able to do this for free through Skype if you have a WiFi Connection you can use.

It is also possible your phone is not picking up the networks automatically. You should be able to search manually for local networks and try to connect to them through your Phone Settings. If this does not allow you to connect, then it is that roaming is disabled on the EE Account and you would need to contact EE.

EDIT: see @bristolian's advice above.

[XRaySpeX]

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@Ladyvic69 wrote:
I travel a lot and never text before i fly.

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But had you travelled outside EU before? It is possible you were enabled for roaming in EU but not globally. For then you would've needed to text ROAMING to 150 from the UK. Not receiving any Welcome msg is indicative that roaming was not activated.