Phone completely unusable abroad - personal safety issue

[SML26]

I’m in Indonesia for work, and my phone is working fine on the hotel WiFi but I can’t call EE on 150 for any customer support, and my phone doesn’t work at all off WiFi. I have the international passport package on my phone, roaming is turned on etc, and if I try and message 150 to sign up to regular roaming it says it’s failed and I need to call - which I then can’t do!!

anything else I can do? I’m a lone female with a serious medical condition and not having a useable phone whilst I’m away on business is not just inconvenient it’s frankly quite frightening and dangerous. 

Thanks in advance for any help - kind of at my wits end here and hoping an e sim might work instead 

[XRaySpeX · Accepted solution]

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 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.

[SML26]

Thank you both. I've got roaming activated on my device and EE account I believe as I travel a lot and have only had this problem in Singapore and now Indonesia. I've opted for an esim for now and thankfully that's given me coverage and the ability to call EE, so hopefully I will be able to rectify from there.

Appreciate your advice!

[XRaySpeX]

Data roaming on your device is a red herring. It's possible you had roaming activated on your a/c for the EU but not globally.

Thanks! You're welcome 🙂 ! Glad I could be of assistance & trust it is now sorted.

[bristolian]

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@SML26 wrote:

I've opted for an esim for now and thankfully that's given me coverage and the ability to call EE

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Having a physical SIM from a local operator would have achieved the same end result, as would using a local WiFi connection to use Skype.

An electronic SIM is just a different type of SIM.

[Schockwave]

@SML26 , you may need to turn automatic network connection off and do a manual search for a network to see if that works as well.