4G Calling Abroad

[JonathanB]

Whether it’s for that just in case of emergency call, or so you can give your family and friends back home a moment by moment playback of your time away, staying connected whilst abroad is really important.

Many networks around the world are already in the process of, or have completed the decommissioning of their 3G signal, so we’ve been working hard to make sure our roaming agreements are covering you for using the newer technologies available.

In most cases, you won’t need to do anything if you have a 4G enabled phone, however 4G calling, sometimes referred to as VOLTE (Voice over LTE), may not be compatible with all handsets, and may require your software to be fully updated to work.

Here’s a link to FAQ’s about 4G Calling Abroad, so that you can make sure you’re all set to enjoy your time abroad without worrying about whether you can make calls or not.

We’ve also been updating our information about roaming destinations, so you’ll see some extra info if 3G is unavailable in your destination. We’ve updated the device guide pages too. Choose your device, then head over to the specifications tab to check if 4G Calling Abroad is supported.

[BlueyIsAGirl]

I have a 4G VoLTE compatible phone (iPhone SE 3rd Gen), yet when roaming in USA I can’t make any calls back to the UK.

This used to work about 6 months ago. Now the call immediately fails. I am using +44 in front of the number dialled. The roaming network is AT&T but I’ve also tried other networks manually, including T-mobile and Verizon. I’ve also tried 4G mode and 5G mode. All fail.

I can receive SMS and phone calls. Just can’t make phone calls to UK.

Please can you tell me why dialling back to the UK no longer works?! I’ll have to leave Three if this continues.

[PeteG]

Hello, BlueyIsAGirl. 

Ah that's a weird one. Have you travelled abroad anywhere else recently and had similar issues? What about WiFi calling, do you have that enabled? It's not supposed to work while roaming, but I've heard of a few instances in the past where it actually interfered with calls being made. Might be worth trying to turn that off to see if you can make a call to the UK then? 

Oh, and Bluey is a girl. My daughter called me out for not getting that right. 🙂 

Pete.