Roaming With Classic PAYG

[sheffman]

Just returned from two weeks in Spain and was unable to make or receive calls using my Classic PAYG sim card. Did manage to receive texts. It's quite disconcerting to be notified of voicemail messages but be unable to access them. 

Back home & everything works well but I need to be sure I am able to roam in future using this sim.

I tried the suggestions provided in the forum while in Spain all to no avail.

Has anyone managed to roam with the Classic PAYG sim? 

[MI5]

@sheffman 

O2 PAYG won't work anywhere that doesn't have a 3g signal for calls, so any country where only 4g is available is a no go.

Supposed to drop to 2g for calls but doesn't always work and 2g can also no longer be supported on some networks.

[sheffman]

When trying to manually change to another network as suggested I managed to get registered on Movistar 2g but that didn't work either. It's strange, you get the "Welcome to Spain" text on arrival but that's it. Incommunicado for the duration. Be wary, our attempts to contact O2 through Facebook led to clicking on a scam site replicating the actual O2 support page which compounded our concerns. 

So are we saying as fact the Classic PAYG sim cannot be used for roaming?

[Enlli]

Quite frankly until if and when O2 allow 4G Calling (VoLTE) I would be dubious of using O2 PAYG for roaming

[MI5]

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@sheffman wrote:

So are we saying as fact the Classic PAYG sim cannot be used for roaming?

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Pretty much yes and also in the UK when O2 turn off 3g this year @sheffman 

Probably will move everyone to giffgaff.

PS. Correct social media links in this guide Guide: How to find help & contact O2 

[sheffman]

I think the point is O2 should be telling users of the Classic PAYG sim that it won't work when roaming so alternative arrangements can be made. Many users of the sim are often older customers who use the phone mostly for making the odd call and receiving calls. From a business point of view I can understand they may not be the most profitable customers but to pretend that you can roam in Europe zone as at home is misleading and could lead to some difficult situations of being uncontactable in a strange place. Surely it would be better to be up front about the roaming service you can expect as a PAYG Classic sim user?

[MI5]

You are correct, of course @sheffman and something has to change one way or another before the end of the year.

[Enlli]

Quite frankly I doubt it has even crossed their minds that the world has moved on. Either that or they don't care. I've not heard of any PAYG customers in Durham being offered 4G Calling and 3G is supposed to close down there this month.

Whether you can roam or not will be down to the roaming network's policy.

For example a Spanish customer cannot now roam on O2's 3G or 2G service . 4G or 5G only.

That would apply to them roaming on Three as they have no 2G or 3G network. Maybe they would be OK with EE and Vodafone 2G, I don't know.

[sheffman]

Thanks all for your responses. 

[lj3]

This page below did not mention anything about needing 3g signal for PAYG roaming to work..

https://www.o2.co.uk/help/pay-as-you-go/roaming-in-europe

I have a classic PAYG SIM and will be taking it to Spain soon, so should I expect it to not work then?