Iphone not working abroad. APN issue?

[Lisamj]

HI all,

I've been a pay monthly customer of O2 for over 20 years and never had any international roaming issues. I've just returned from Italy where my phone didn't work. As soon as I landed and switched on, a pop up said 'O2 have blocked 4G called from this device' and for the entire trip I had no service : no calls, text or data access (unless I hooked onto to my husbands phone or used the apartment wifi). This was my first trip abroad with this iphone, but when trying my sim in my husbands phone it had the same problem (so not a device issue). His phone was working fine and he is also with O2.

Called support and they told me to do a network reset and manually tried selecting numerous networks without luck. Another call and they said they were adding an apple support bolt on - that didn't work. They escalated it to the fault team who only got back to me once I'd returned and said they can't help unless I'm abroad as the account looks ok - catch 22!  I'm due to go on my own to Spain on business soon as cannot risk the same thing happening as I'll have no-one else to hook onto, so don't have much choice be to look at leaving O2 if I can't resolve this.

I asked the faults team about changing the APN to mobile from idata as I've seen people mention on here, and she said I shouldn't do that as iphones have to have idata selected?!

Has anyone had a similar experience and a sure-fire fix? Anyone know why I shouldn't select mobile instead of idata with an iphone?  At the end of my tether and getting nowhere with O2 support.

Thanks in hope of help!

Lisa

[MI5]

Hi @Lisamj 

I’ve just seen your message. 
You can use “mobile.o2.co.uk” if you don’t have iData enabled on your account. If visual voicemail is working on your phone it means you do have the iData bolt on, so you can leave your apn as iData. 
in your case it sounds like a roaming bar on your account, so customer service need to check this for you too. 
Let us know what they say and hope you have a safe trip. 

[Lisamj]

Thanks so much for taking the time to reply - roaming was definitely enabled - they are showing nothing wrong on the account, that's why I'm stuck as they say they can't help me until I'm abroad again - but I can't risk going with this phone not knowing if it will work......

[MI5]

@Lisamj 

Not much more I can suggest as we can't access accounts from here, but I would double check with O2 either way.

[Lisamj]

Thanks again.

Yes I've definitely got intl roaming.

Thanks anyway, I'm going to try my local O2 store tomorrow but if they can't help will have to leave, unfortunately. 

[Lisamj]

HI, following up on this -  does anyone know if a faulty sim could be the issue?  As I said, I definitely have Intl roaming on my account and have never had any problems until I got my new phone/sim last year. This was the first trip abroad with it. My husband's sim worked in my phone no problem, but my sim would not work in my phone or his. O2 say there is nothing on the account they can see causing the issue. Thanks

[Cleoriff]

@Lisamj 

A faulty sim could be the issue, if you have tried another sim and it works.

Not much you can do until you get home and change your sim. You could try a local payg sim. At least you will have a working phone.

[MI5]

@Lisamj 

Did you confirm that visual voicemail was working?

[Lisamj]

HI - thanks for replying.....I can't recall about visual voicemail for sure as I had reason to check (because I knew that calls weren't able to come through). I can see there are no voicemails on there from 1st - 5th June when I was away though as no-one could get through.

I a, going to ask if they will replace the sim: in italy it was manageable as it was a bank holiday (so works concerns were less) and I could tether onto my husbands 4G for all except texts.  But I'm due to go to Spain on business on my own and would be stranded if the same thing happens again. 

I am going to ask for a replacement sim. If they refuse then vodafone here I come I guess 😞

Thanks
Lisa

[MI5]

@Lisamj 

I can't see it being a sim issue.

Re visual voicemail - does it work in the UK or do you have to call 901 to get your voicemails?