cancel
Showing results for 
Show  only  | Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Unable to make or receive calls in China

james707
Visitor

Hi, hoping an EE moderator or anyone else can suggest any ideas here.

Currently in China and I have the Full works extra roaming pass thing, so I get inclusive roaming here. Data is working fine, and I was able to make calls when I landed here 2 days ago, so roaming is definitely set up fine. 

However yesterday and today I’m totally unable to make calls, and I’m told that when someone in the UK rings me nothing happens at all. 

I’ve restarted my phone, airplane mode, chosen a different network manually, turned off and on 5G, VoLTE setting, anything I can think of, but nothing. When I try to make a call, the connection goes down to 2G as expected as EE still don’t have VoLTE roaming (at least here), and it tries to connect for about 20 seconds, and then fails. I’ve tried calling both UK mobiles and landlines and the same thing happens. It shouldn’t be my spend cap as I haven’t done anything chargeable, as I’ve just called the UK and used data. 

When I try and chat to EE using the app and tell the bot that I can’t make calls abroad, it tells me I can’t message and need to… you guessed it…. call them. Good one! 

Any help would be appreciated. Thank you. 

3 REPLIES 3
Leanne_T
EE Community Support Team

Hi there @james707 

Thanks for coming to the community and letting us know everything you have tried so far. 

What happens when you manually select a different network? Can you send and receive texts? 

What is your spend cap set as at the moment? 

Thanks 🙂

Leanne.

I encountered the same issue when I was in China two months ago. I tried all the suggested solutions, including increasing the spend cap to £50, but making or receiving calls in China was still impossible after trying every possible method.

After doing some research, I believe the reason is that China is gradually shutting down its 2G network nationwide, and EE does not have a roaming agreement with Chinese carriers that supports VoLTE or 5G voice calls. As a result, when a call is initiated, the network attempts to switch down to 2G — which is no longer available — and this causes the phone to show “No Service.”

I even sent an email to EE for help while I was in China, as I couldn’t make any calls back home. The reply I received stated that “providing roaming services depends on the local operator’s network, and EE cannot guarantee that calls, texts, or data services will always work properly.” This response made little sense to me. We pay for full roaming services, and EE should either ensure proper functionality or at least inform customers about potential issues instead of doing nothing.

William9297
Investigator
Investigator

I encountered the same issue when I was in China two months ago. I tried all the suggested solutions, including increasing the spend cap to £50, but making or receiving calls in China was still impossible after trying every possible method.

After doing some research, I believe the reason is that China is gradually shutting down its 2G network nationwide, and EE does not have a roaming agreement with Chinese carriers that supports VoLTE or 5G voice calls. As a result, when a call is initiated, the network attempts to switch down to 2G — which is no longer available — and this causes the phone to show “No Service.”

I even sent an email to EE for help while I was in China, as I couldn’t make any calls back home. The reply I received stated that “providing roaming services depends on the local operator’s network, and EE cannot guarantee that calls, texts, or data services will always work properly.” This response made little sense to me. We pay for full roaming services, and EE should either ensure proper functionality or at least inform customers about potential issues instead of doing nothing.

I encountered the same issue when I was in China two months ago. I tried all the suggested solutions, including increasing the spend cap to £50, but making or receiving calls in China was still impossible after trying every possible method.

After doing some research, I believe the reason is that China is gradually shutting down its 2G network nationwide, and EE does not have a roaming agreement with Chinese carriers that supports VoLTE or 5G voice calls. As a result, when a call is initiated, the network attempts to switch down to 2G — which is no longer available — and this causes the phone to show “No Service.”

I even sent an email to EE for help while I was in China, as I couldn’t make any calls back home. The reply I received stated that “providing roaming services depends on the local operator’s network, and EE cannot guarantee that calls, texts, or data services will always work properly.” This response made little sense to me. We pay for full roaming services, and EE should either ensure proper functionality or at least inform customers about potential issues instead of doing nothing.