continuing roaming issues

[T-Bone]

Getting a bit desperate on things to try...so fingers crossed...

I've not yet found these symptoms mentioned elsewhere - so here goes. The short version is that, I have virtually no service whilst roaming in Europe (not tried further afield for a long time). At best I can very briefly get some data, but can never send/recieve SMS or make calls (if relevant it's a Galaxy S9).

I've had this issue in various countries in Europe always the same issue/symptoms (at least France, Ireland, Spain, Finland). At the same time (and the same locations) - my wife (also an O2 customer) has absolutely no problems at all.

From various forum posts/articles elsewhere I've tried a few suggestions.

If I manually setup a new APN with settings found online - then I can manually search for a network. Maybe 1 in 5 times I can connect to a network (the rest of the time it responds with "failed to register").

If it connects, then I will have a short period of mobile data use (at most approximately 2 minutes) before it appears to drop the connection again. However, even during that time I am unable to make call or send/receieve text messages.

Resetting the network settings leaves me with the standard mobile.o2.co.uk Pay Monthly APN which never allows network registration so can't do anything. So I have to manually add a duplicate. The default one works absolutely fine when in the UK (as does the manually created duplicate).

Choosing to automatically find a network never results in a successfull connection.

I've tried a few times with cust serv/tech help but they've only suggested the obvious stuff (and frankly after repeating myself for the 3rd time and then getting disconnected from the chat whilst waiting for a response - I've not got enough stamina to sit through that again). I'm lead to believe that my account has no blocks/issues/services disabled that should prevent this from working.

Has anyone heard of similar symptoms or have some new ideas to try? I'm off to Malta in a few weeks so can try roaming again - if it still can't be resolved then I feel a little like my hand is forced into trying a different provider (last resort having been broadly happy with O2 for many years and could do without the hassle of changing).

Cheers

[MI5 · Accepted solution]

@T-Bone 

There are 2 levels of international roaming bars.

Regular customer servive can see the first level but you'll need to ask for escalation to check if a level 2 bar is on your account.

[madasaf1sh]

This sounds like a sim card issue, where by the sim isnt registering that you are roaming, and thus the host network cant send the response back to the UK network for what services you are subscribed to.

So in the fist instance i would try and get a replacement sim.

i would also try and drop off 4G and try 3G.

[T-Bone]

@MI5 - thanks for the suggestion, I'll try chatting to someone on the phone and will see how I get on. I'll update this thread either way once I've got a response.

[T-Bone]

@madasaf1sh - it's the 2nd sim in a row with the same problem then as I had a new one a while ago (the previous one didn't work either but it sounds like it's worth a shot - I'll ask them to send me a new one when I'm checking on the level 2 block). 

I did try changing down the connection speeds (all options have been tried) - but no difference.

[T-Bone]

Ok, so have just finished up a fairly lengthy call with CS (followed by one of the O2 Guru team).

It sounds like there was/is a roaming bar on the account which was "partially" in place (go figure). So the current plan is to apply/commit/resubmit the bar before removing it again (in theory to get everything to sync up). 

I shall be abroad again in a couple of weeks - so will be able to validate then (hopefully that will be finally resolved though).

Thanks @madasaf1sh  and @MI5 for the suggestions (was starting to lose the will to live) - I shall try to come back and confirm once I've tested again whilst abroad.

[MI5]

That'll be the 2nd level bar.
They never find it unless asked to look for it.

[T-Bone]

Sounds spot on. Just in case others have a similar discussion with CS, the agent seemed fully aware of there being 2 levels of bar (but was convinced that neither was applied) - so for the same problem it's definitely worth pursuing an escalation as you mentioned

[Cleoriff]

---

@MI5 wrote:
That'll be the 2nd level bar.
They never find it unless asked to look for it.

---

Well I've never heard of this until now @MI5, so what exactly does the 2nd level bar involve?

Also when is a bar, not a bar? When it's 2 bars? FGS!!

[MI5]

@Cleoriff 

Not sure of all the in's and out's but no doubt a throwback to day's gone by and a issue with O2's out of date systems.

TBH, any system that still defaults all handsets to a Blackberry definitely needs a reboot into the 21st Century !