Roaming Pass Absolutely Needed to Roam in Kazakhstan?

[AlmasUK]

I just got through to Customer Care (I am on a plan with EE UK and not receiving any incoming voice calls while in Kazakhstan though SMS seems to work fine). 

Advice I got is that without a paid Roaming Pass I cannot even receive calls.

I wonder how accurate is that because it seems to conflict with the information posted on this resource (which is incoming voice calls should connect even without a pass).

Thank you.
  

[Schockwave]

Hello @AlmasUK ,

Welcome to the community,

Did you receive the welcome message from EE?

If you did not, although you are receiving SMS ok, did you activate roaming on your account?

Are you on pay as you go or contract?

You should still receive incoming calls, but only if you have roaming enabled on your account.

Have you tried doing a manual search for a network? This can resolve the issue.

[XRaySpeX]

You don't need to have the Zone 3 Pass to roam in Kazakhstan. You can pay by min or text,

Did you receive a Welcome text upon arrival?

Are you on contract or PAYG? Had you used that SIM for making calls or texts in UK before leaving to go abroad?

If you are on contract, did you activate roaming on your EE a/c before leaving 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. using a web-calling app over WiFi.

[AlmasUK]

Thank you very much, Shockwave! 

I am on a pay-monthly plan, which however ended in Oct 25, but I guess the contract keeps rolling (direct debit working). 

I tried different local operators - same outcome: all calls are diverted to the voicemail and I never receive any calls. 

I agree I should still receive calls (I thoroughly checked the EE web site again to establish that). Amazing that I received a wrong advice on the phone with customer service (they told me I must buy roaming pass to be able to receive calls) 

[Peter_W]

Welcome to the Community @AlmasUK.

If you're receiving messages but not calls, it sounds like these could be iMessage / RCS Chat messages that are sent over the internet. 

Do you know if you're able to get online when not connected to WiFi?

If you get back in touch with our team, they'll be able to check to ensure your roaming settings are correct at our end, as whilst you don't explicitly need a pass, you do still need the roaming feature enabled.

Peter

[AlmasUK]

Hi Peter,

Thank you for your response.

Following your advice, I did reach out to customer care again and explained the situation in detail. This time they confirmed that I don't need to purchase a roaming pass. They also confirmed that roaming is enabled on my account, and we reset the network settings together.

After that, I tried manually selecting different local operators again, but neither data nor voice worked.

Eventually, I gave up and purchased the 24-hour Zone 3 add-on. Once activated, data started working (i turned off Wi-Fi) - I can now load websites and receive SMS messages on roaming. However, I'm still unable to receive incoming calls. All calls continue to be diverted straight to voicemail.

Thank you

[Mod edit - removed phone number, please don't share any personal info in public]

[Peter_W · Accepted solution]

Thanks for confirming all of this for me, @AlmasUK.

How to do this will depend on the model of phone you're using, but can you try disabling 5G in your phone's settings? 

Your phone may be defaulting to this for calls, and if it's not part of the agreement in your destination, you may encounter issues.

Peter

[AlmasUK]

Dear Peter, 
It worked now. Thank you so much for your time and advice! Much appreciated! 

[Peter_W]

I'm really glad to hear that's sorted things for you, @AlmasUK 😊

Enjoy the rest of your trip!

Peter