Roaming enabled and working excepts for calls. Can't even phone EE!!!

[Gigi76]

I am in Madeira. Both my husband and I are EE customers and both have roaming. The phone has no problem with data and I can use Google maps and browse the internet, use WhatsApp etc but the phone will not receive calls or allow me to make them. This is a problem because EE don't have any way for me to contact them other than through phoning. Oh the irony!

I have checked settings, restarted the phone, as has my beloved but neither of us have had any joy. Even tried WiFi calling in our hotel. Nothing!

Any top tips, secret ways to contact EE gratefully received as I'm a bit desperate and quite cross, veering towards incandescence.

[Gigi76]

I don't need to top up credit. I can use WhatsApp but I need to be able to make normal network calls as the numbers I need to call are not on WhatsApp. I also need to be able to receive calls through the network.

I've paid EE for roaming including calls so I should be able to make and receive them using a Roaming network.

[bristolian]

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@XRaySpeX wrote:

You can make calls from What'sApp, can't you? You might need to top-up credit 1st.

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WhatsApp is an internet-app that - in blunt terms - allows audio sessions between users of the app. These are not "calls" in the same sense, and it's only usage within the app ecosystem.

The symptoms describe sound horribly like a VoLTE issue. In short, VoLTE is the technology behind 4G-calling which means your phone stays on 4G during calls rather than falling back to 2G/3G.

I can't immediately think of any EU-based networks that have disabled 2G/3G yet, but in the same way that EE requires VoLTE to use the "extended range" 800Mhz spectrum, there may be something similar with your situation.

I suggest testing calling some in-country numbers if at all possible - if that works, it will disprove VoLTE and could point at an international call-barring issue.

[Gigi76]

Thank you for your help and suggestions. 

It sounds complicated and the most ridiculous thing of it all is that you can't actually speak to someone from EE and are reliant on the kindness and advice of strangers.

[XRaySpeX]

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@bristolian wrote:

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WhatsApp is an internet-app that - in blunt terms - allows audio sessions between users of the app. These are not "calls" in the same sense, and it's only usage within the app ecosystem.

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Is that for sure in the case of WhatsApp? After all, Skype before it was withdrawn, allowed these audio session "calls" between anybody within or without that app's ecosystem.

[bristolian]

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@XRaySpeX wrote:

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@bristolian wrote:

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WhatsApp is an internet-app that - in blunt terms - allows audio sessions between users of the app. These are not "calls" in the same sense, and it's only usage within the app ecosystem.

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Is that for sure in the case of WhatsApp?

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Yes, I'm sure. I wouldn't have stated it otherwise.

Regarding the OP's comment that this is ridiculous because you can't contact EE by phone and rely on a community forum, I'd look at it a different way - it's just the nature of the beast. When the problem is with a particular service, then you can't rely on using that same service to report an issue - it's just a catch-22.

There is live-chat available via the myEE app for pay-monthly customers, that's an alternative to having to use another phone. Testing a domestic call within your host country shouldn't be complicated - maybe just locate a business that's closed, and try calling them. Does the line ring or do you get the same problem?

This is just a means of seeing whether in-country calls work, and will point the problem in one of two directions. Fault finding is often just a case of thinking methodically through an issue.