Movistar disconnection

[NigelIsted]

Hi all,

I'm currently in Tenerife, and having a problem with connecting to Movistar.

I have an iPhone 8 plus Running iOS 11.3.1.  When I arrived the phone didn' automatically connect.  I went to carrier settings, turned off automatic, and selected 'Movistar', and got instantly connected with good 4G service.

Less than 60 seconds later, it dropped to 3G, then no data, then No Service.  Every time i repeat the above, the same thing happens 😞

I've tried resetting network settings, various different APN settings in 'Mobile Data', but always end up with the same issue.

I've even tried the same SIm in a spare iphone, and I'm still getting the same issue...

I've tried 3 times to resolve this with O2 Guru's via the hotels rather flaky wifi, and keep losing my connection to them.

I'm unsure if it's a settings problem or an account problem.  Any help or ideas would be very much appreciated.

Cheers,

Nige

[MI5]

Sounds like you have the wrong apn or an international roaming restriction.
You'll have to persevere with customer services to check out which is giving you the problem http://www.o2.co.uk/contactus
Have you tried "mobile.o2.co.uk" as your apn?

[adamtemp64]

Very strange as Tenerife is in the Canary Islands and classed as in the eu roaming zone so it should just work like at home  

have you tried any of the other available networks etc 

[Anonymous]

Other than the possibly of less throttling if you stick to the Telefonica ( & O2) owned  Movistar I don't think there is any reason to make it your preferred carrier, from memory Orange have the best coverage in Tenerife. The one good thing about roaming is that you have all the carriers to choose from and your phone will happily flick from one to the other depending on signal strength. Perhaps you just are in a bad Movistar área?

Also if you happen to be in Buenavista don't drive to either Punto de Teno; nor Santiago del Teide on the

T-42.Take the Titsa Local Bus instead. The T-42 is said one of the safest roads in Spain cos you will never be out of first or second gear or equivalent or much over 10 mph.... One of the scariest roads I've ever driven. 

[Cleoriff]

My friend has an apartment in Tenerife and she uses Vodafone. (The fact she is on Vodafone in the UK may be the reason for that :smileywink:)

However when VF suffered an outage for 2 days she connected quite happily to Movistar.

[darrengf]

Welcome to the Forum @NigelIsted

I know these have been mentioned. However first try to connecting to Orange ES.  Vodafone is only a last resort for O2 and certain places will not allow you to connect to it even if you try.

couple of things you can try.

If you can speak to O2 ask if you have restrictions on your account or if Roaming is activated. And make sure you are set up for Iphone Data. Ask them all at the same time and say you don’t have good Wi-fi.

If you know some one there who is on o2 and has a contract and does have a connection dial 202 from there (it’s free) and speak to customer service direct

If they customer service have advised that there is nothing wrong at their end then try the following.

Place the phone back on Automatic for network selection then,

Turn off your 4G (Settings > Mobile Data > enable 4G > Off

then reboot the phone.

wait at least a few moments and see if the phone connects.

Roaming is a little complicated when 4G is switched on.  What happens is that if it try’s to connect to the network example Movistar and for some reason it says all of a sudden er no then it doesn’t think oh let me try 3G or 2G but it says well non of it will work so cancels that network out.

as O2 only currently has a 4G roaming agreement in place with Movistar there may be an issue in connecting to 4G

on Orange if you have 4G activated it will just go nope can’t connect and again won’t try the others as it thinks it’s pointless.

Having just 3G on it will attempt to connect as o2 does have roaming agreements on both 2G and 3G with both Movistar and Orange ES.  It has a back up with Vodafone ES but this is location based where you may not get the others and this is not a preferred network.  Yoigo Spain’s 4th network doesn’t have a roaming agreement with o2 so you will not connect.

if still no connection the try the following. Manual search for Orange ES and choose this (4G still needs to be switched of)

On an Iphone it can take up to 5-10 mins to connect to a non preferred network such as Orange ES.

You could try Vodafone ES. You never know

If still no service. Turn data off both in roaming and the data it self.  Place phone back to automatic but leave 4G off.  Reboot the phone and wait approx 30 mins. Sounds along time I know, however the phone will then constantly keep checking each network randomly and try and connect. As it’s not looking for 4G or Data it’s only looking for a basic service. If you could leave it over night that’s great, and if still no service by the morning. Reboot one more time and leave 5 mins.  Still nothing then o2 have either not enabled roaming, you have a provision error on the SIM card, a SIM card fault, or there is a roaming fault in Spain not allowing you to connection.

Sorry for the long reply but I Wish you good luck and if you need any further help please let me or any of the other great forum people who will gladly help.

please also let us know how u get on.

[Anonymous]

Chapeau (Hats off) Daz 👍👍👍

So I stand corrected, turns out it does matter which network you are on whilst roaming....at least if you want 4g- that's 300 roaming arrangements (75 countries X av. 4 networks) to keep track of for 02 UK based customers alone.

You should go on Mastermind - O2 Roaming specialist subject! 

• You are an O2 customer with an iphone driving throug France, Belgium, Germany and onto Italy, Croatia Albania, Greece and Turkey, what combination of  O2 travel bolt-ons , and preferred networks would give the best 4g signal and cost least?

[NigelIsted]

Thanks for your reply MI5.

I've tried mobile.o2.co.uk (along with numerous other variations), and had the same outcome.

[adamtemp64]

@NigelIsted Have you tried any of the other suggestions and contacted customer services?

[MI5]

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@NigelIsted wrote:

Thanks for your reply MI5.

I've tried mobile.o2.co.uk (along with numerous other variations), and had the same outcome.

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Maybe not an apn issue then but could still be an international use issue.

Best to check with customer services if you can.