Problems in Australia

[BrianH1]

My wife and I found it particularly difficult to get a signal on our recent trip to Australia. Both of us have the same phones - Honor 70 Lite, less than a year old, and both of us have 3 Pay As You Go SIMs which have always worked in the past.
In other countries, and in Australia in the past, we've picked up a roaming network almost immediately we've arrived, but this time all we got was 'No Signal'. I could see three providers - Optus Vodafone and Telstra and tried changing the Network Provider from automatic to manually selecting each in turn but no joy.
We only needed to make one call while we were there, but the ability to receive calls and texts while we were there would be useful - particularly as one of our payment cards used 2FA by sending a text.
It was only while I was experimenting to see if I could fit a local SIM that I found, purely by accident, that by turning off the SIM in the 'SIM Management' setting, leaving it for a while (when it would change from 'No Signal' to 'Emergency Calls Only') then turning it on again, that I could get a connection to Telstra. Sometimes it took a few tries but it generally worked. Once we got a signal it stayed until we turned off the phone.
As our phones work perfectly in other countries I would suggest that this is a particular Australian problem. I tried internet searching for solutions and there were suggestions that it was to do with their recent shutdown of 3G services and the Government blocking certain IMEI numbers - but in that case our phones should not have worked at all. It's certainly not very friendly to International visitors.
Be aware that, if you're going to Australia, your phone might not work and allow for that before you go.

[MichaelB]

Three users may well find that roaming in Australia is not working properly and limited to SMS only. Motorola technical support tell me that they have also had reports of issues from various overseas users on various networks.  It looks like the culprit is the way the shut down of 3G and requirements for 4G compatibility have been implemented. Seems to be the case even when 4G LTE roaming is set up with local carriers.

[JonathanB]

Hi @BrianH1,

Sorry to hear about the disruption to your recent trip to Australia. I've taken a look into this, and it sounds like you may have been affected by a recent regulatory change for Australian networks. After decommissioning 2/3G, they only allow roaming from devices which they verify will be able to make VoLTE Emergency Calls (4G calling).

Your phone may not be compatible with 4G calling services on Australian networks, or it may have never been sold by Australian providers, so the local providers may not have been able to verify the capability.

Here's a link to Optus' site which you can use to verify if this your phone is blocked or not from the Australian networks: https://www.optus.com.au/support/checkdevice

You just need the first 8 digits of your IMEI on this checker as this designates the specific model of your phone. You can usually call up your IMEI on screen by dialing *#06# or checking for Settings > About phone.

Thanks for raising this topic, hopefully this info goes on to help others too.

Jonathan

[BrianH1]

Thank you JonathanB. I used the link which you provided and the Honor 70 Lite is indeed blocked in Australia.

I would suggest that anyone going to Australia checks their phone using the link before leaving, to see if it will work.

The question remains that how did I manage to get it to work by my workaround when the phone is blocked?

[JonathanB · Accepted solution]

Thanks for confirming @BrianH1, glad to hear this at least gives us some explanation of what happened, and can hopefully help others.

In terms of the remaining question, I suspect that will be down to how the Australian providers are implementing the IMEI checks/blocks. I don't think we'll be able to determine this from Three. 

Thanks,
Jonathan

[MichaelB]

problem may be more than that. I have an Australian mobile phone, Moto G15 dual sim (so no IMEI blocking issues). In Australia the local sim has no issues, obviously. My Three PAYG sim used to have no issues receiving both calls and SMS roaming in Australia.  Now, on two networks- Optus and Vodafone cannot receive calls or SMS. On Telstra, i can receive SMS but not calls. it's not the phone as i tried the same sim in a different phone that previously had no issues with same result. Maybe something to do with Three's roaming arrangements with local carriers? woudl appreciate anyone's thoughts or similar experience.

[PeteG]

What is the status of the network showing as on the phone when the SIM is in? When was the last time you used it prior to these recent attempts?

Pete.

[MichaelB]

hi Pete. thanks for replying. The following applies to both mine and my wife's phones (both moto g15 recently purchased in Australia and an older Vivo Y11S that used to receive calls from UK at least till mid May last though can't be entirely sure when the last call actually came in from the Uk as they are usually spam and most known callers form UK tend to call on whatsapp via our australian sim data. (btw also tried son's UK sim with same results today)  no sim issues while using the sims in UK May- June this year with a data pack. also no issues roaming in Europe in June and Singapore early July with data pack (now expired and back on PAYG credit only data roaming turned off as usual).  Now only Telstra network works at all and only for SMS. 

cheers

Michael

[MichaelB]

to supplement my last post.  This seems to be a wider issue that will affect Three customers in Australia and more generally.  possibly somethnig to do with not having VoLTE roaming arrangements n place or having to have an active data pack as a minimum. see these other threads where this has been talked about- https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/31mxywkr and

 https://www.tripadvisor.com.au/ShowTopic-g255055-i120-k15243493-Mobile_not_working-Australia.html

[JonathanB]

Hi @MichaelB,

I think the mention of a data pack is likely specific to the context of the provider. We might block a PAYG SIM from roaming if it's never been topped up, but we don't make a distinction on whether you choose to use cash credit or a data pack.

We do have VoLTE agreements with the Australian providers too, so I don't think that's affecting our subscribers either.

You did mention one thing that could be relevant though, VoLTE will generally only work in SIM slot 1. Can you try swapping your Three and Local SIMs into opposing SIM slots in the device and let us know if you get different results? You may also need to go into settings and set a "primary SIM" for calls.

Thanks,
Jonathan