Roaming in USA, can't receive calls

[hd]

I've been in the USA for 2 weeks, roaming on T-mobile. I can make calls back to the UK, receive texts and use data. I can't receive calls or send texts. 

I have a Pixel 6a, unlocked from the manufacturer and a pay monthly customer. Fully up to date on Android 13 and patched to October 5th.

I have another Pixel 6a with the same behaviour. I've been through hours of Live Chat and poor advice saying the "caller" needs to have international roaming on etc etc. Anyway i've now done a factory reset and it hasn't resolved anything.

I think there is an issue with Pixel phones not bought directly through Three. Many problems in this forum recently on roaming in the US seem to be from unlocked phones. 

Is there anything three can do to help? 

[qwerty1982]

FWIW I had this problem (on an older android phone) and was able to fix it by turning off VoLTE calls and switching network mode to 2G only. Not sure which of those fixed it and obviously the 2G only mode is not much use for using data but it at least allowed me to receive a call when I needed to. I am roaming in the US with three UK.

[qwerty1982]

Before messing with those settings I tried choosing network manually. T Mobile went straight to voicemail when someone called me. At&T just said number could not be reached.

[FC]

Hi there, I am currently in the US and facings the same issue exactly. I am using an iPhone 11. Was there any solution to your problem @hd ?

[RW]

I was just in the US (July 2023) and still the exact same issue, over a year later. Three should not be claiming roaming in US is available. 

At&t was data and incoming SMS only. Call from UK went straight to voice mail. Could not call back to UK. 

Verizon would just disconnect if a call from UK came. 

T-Mobile had no coverage where I was. 

Phone is volte compatible and set up. 

This is clearly a much bigger issue than phone/settings/SIM. 

It effects all makes of phone. I am on a Huawei P30. Others on iPhone and other android all have the exact same issues. It's a contract thing with Three uk and the US carriers surely.

I will be opening a complaint and expect compensation. 

[JonathanB]

Hi @FC,

You may be affected by the USA 3G switch off. It does look like the iPhone 11 is enabled for 4G calling though, so hopefully some settings tweaks should help.

First check your iOS is up to date, as you might not have the latest call settings.

Next check in settings for Cellular/Mobile Data, the Cellular/Mobile Data options and make sure that Voice and Data is set to use 4G or Volte.

Next, if you're still having these issues. Try going to settings, carrier, then switching automatic off for this setting. You should get a list of available networks, if you try selecting and testing these one by one, hopefully you should get full service on at least one. If you do this, make sure to pop carrier back to automatic when you return to the UK.

Let me know if this helps,
Jonathan

[JonathanB]

Hi @hd,

Welcome to the Three Community, we'll do our best to help.

It's a really unusual one that the issue with calls is incoming and the SMS issue is outgoing. I've got a couple of thoughts, sorry if I'm asking you to try anything that we've already went over on chat, but can we give the following a go?

Change network selection to manual, and try any other available networks e.g AT&T, I don't have the exact same device/software but it ought to be Settings>Network and Internet>SIMs Three>Automatically Select Network: Off> Choose network. Sorry if the wording is off as this can sometimes vary with Android version and device. 

In terms of messaging, are you sending using RCS/"chat" (sent over data) or normal SMS? I'd check if toggling this on/off in the  settings of your messages app makes any difference.

If you can confirm on the above whether it seems to be all US networks, and if it's specifically "chat" texts/SMS/both, and the software versions of the two phones, I'll see what else we can do to get this investigated further.

Thanks,
JonathanB

[hd]

On AT&T I was only able to get data only. At least T-Mobile allowed outgoing calls.

I'm running Android 13 and the other is Android 12.

I didn't try toggling SMS RCS as I'm now back in the UK.

I certainly wouldn't pay £5 a day for this roaming service. Used to work fine before the 3G networks started to be switched off in the US.

[hd]

I can see others having similar issues here Google Support 

[hd]

On AT&T calls went straight to voicemail. On T-Mobile they said the number wasn't recognised in a British accent. When I called support they reset my voicemail but it didn't help.

I'm less concerned by the text issue, just by the fact that no one can call me or leave a voicemail when roaming.