USA Roaming problem - dropped connectivity

[Jake2000]

I travel to the US (Denver) quite a bit and I am frequently losing connectivity. When connected I have 5 bar signal  with AT&T or 3-4 bars with T-Mobile. Then frequently it says "emergency calls only". I can only get round this by rebooting or manually choosing the network, but then it drops periodically.

My 2nd (old SonyEricsson) phone with a PAYG SIM (Togglemobile) is permanently connected to T-Mobile with no problems.

This ONLY happens when I'm in the USA!  Any help appreciated.

o2 Monthly Contract
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge
Android 7.0

[Bambino · Accepted solution]

@Jake2000 You're never going to get better than a 3G signal roaming with O2. O2 does not have a 4G agreement with any US network. If you travel regularly to the US, you'd be much better off using an AT&T or T-Mobile sim. You can get a T-Mobile Pay & Go sim, and as long as you top it up once a year you can keep the number and not lose your minutes. Obviously it would be a US number, so you'd just have to make sure that your UK contacts use Whatsapp and you can keep in touch that way.

[jonsie]

It could possibly point to a faulty sim or a faulty phone. Best option is to call into an O2 store before your next trip. They will give you a new sim and swap your number a nd tariff details over.

Personally I would go with the suggestion by @Bambino and get a local sim which  will probably give you better coveragge l speeds and may work out cheaper.

Make sure you get the phone unlocked first :

https://community.o2.co.uk/t5/Other-Products-and-Services/Unlocking-an-O2-phone-to-use-a-different-S...

[SvenH]

Make sure you have a normal data plan and not Mobile broadband.. the latter is an expensive trap. O2 should not be selling Mobile broadband to unknowing customers who really do not ask for it but specifically say they want to data roam in North America and specifically ask for the regular data plan.