Forum Discussion
No roaming !!!!
I’m no rookie with international roaming. Bought 15 gb 30 day package. Will not work in Victoria Falls in either Zimbabwe or Zambia. T-mobile advanced support were no help and never bothered to call me back on wi-fi after we reset network and so on. All settings and switches backend are correct for roaming. Very disappointing since I rely on t-mobile comms for security. In Zimbabwe it just won’t work and in Zambia it says unable to activate. This after getting the routine message about t-mobile “welcome to Zimbabwe” and similar for Zambia. 😐
What device are you using? Is it compatible with the roaming partners network? Do you have roaming turned on in your device settings? Have you turned off auto connect to network and tried manually selecting the roaming partners network, if it shows up?
Read my reply to drnewcomb Fiber Fanatic. My Apple device to 100% compatible and all the setting are correct and yes I tried everything.
T-Mobile's coverage maps show 3G/4G coverage but that's no guarantee. There are a million reasons why roaming might not work. If roaming worked before, I'd assume that there is some network glitch. This is why I advise always having a backup plan. Is your phone unlocked and eSIM capable? You should download an international data eSIM like Airalo, DENT or Piranha Mobile* and have a means to connect even when T-Mobile roaming isn't working.
If you pay $50 for International Roaming for 30 days you expect service; but yes sometimes there are local network issues but in this case there were none because the local roaming partner for T-mobile had excellent service. How do I know? I had to buy one of their local packages to get service. Even in the capital city of Harare T-mobile roaming often indicated EDGE and sometime 3g but was unusable. And yes I do use Airalo when I need to, but buying local service is always better and cheaper. I suspect the local partners in some of these places are not living up to their contractual obligations. I reported again to T-mobile and they could see I used just about nothing and refunded me.
Buying a data pass does not give you any better access to the roaming partner's network*. It just removes the throttle at T-Mobile's APN (and flat-rates voice calls). This is why I will normally check things out with default data and if that works buy a one-day pass to see how things improve. If I feel a longer pass is warranted, I buy it at the end of the first day.
*Except for the Essentials plan where it provides data access (IMHO, YMMV, etc.)
