Iphone 5S not working in USA

[ShelleySmart]

Hi there, 

Im writing this post on behalf of my Mum, she is currently on her first holiday in 30 years in NYC and although she has paid for the World Traveller, her phone is not connecting to a network and she is really upset that she is unable to speak to my Dad.

Shes tried turning of her automatic search and connecting to a network provider manually and this does not work, neither does a soft reset or removing the sim.  Vodafone have confirmed that there are no raoming bars and the WT is active on her phone although they could see that roaming is currently disabled.

I am fortunatley able to contact her direct at her hotel as this is a free charge for me but my Dad has to come to my house just to speak with my Mum.  As you can appreciate, my Mum is upset and very frustrated as this should have been sorted before she left.  It may also be worth mentioning that she did not receive a welcome text upon arrival and although she can not contact my Dad, there was a brief period yesterday where she was able to send me a text.  This has now stopped and she has no network signal at all.

Any help to resolve this issue is more than appreciated as my Mum really deserves this holiday.

Thank you

Shelley

[ShelleySmart]

Hi there, 

Im writing this post on behalf of my Mum, she is currently on her first holiday in 30 years in NYC and although she has paid for the World Traveller, her phone is not connecting to a network and she is really upset that she is unable to speak to my Dad.

Shes tried turning of her automatic search and connecting to a network provider manually and this does not work, neither does a soft reset or removing the sim.  Vodafone have confirmed that there are no raoming bars and the WT is active on her phone although they could see that roaming is currently disabled.

I am fortunatley able to contact her direct at her hotel as this is a free charge for me but my Dad has to come to my house just to speak with my Mum.  As you can appreciate, my Mum is upset and very frustrated as this should have been sorted before she left.  It may also be worth mentioning that she did not receive a welcome text upon arrival and although she can not contact my Dad, there was a brief period yesterday where she was able to send me a text.  This has now stopped and she has no network signal at all.

Any help to resolve this issue is more than appreciated as my Mum really deserves this holiday.

Thank you

Shelley

[jeffkinn]

What phone is it?

Has she turned roaming on on the phone - it will be turned off by default?

Did she make sure roaming was enabled on her account before she left the UK?

[Golfcity]

Hello, Shelley,

I was about to raise a similar issue and saw your post.  I have just got back from New York and have World Travellor on my Blackberry Z10.  In the UK and Europe I connect to Voda 4G but in the States I could only connect to AT & T, and only then with a feeble HSDPA signal.  My phone could not see any 4G networks.  I checked that the Blackberry Z10 covered all the necessary USA bands - it does, so I was very disappointed and ended up paying for a Wi-Fi service.  I always thought the States was ahead of the game! I guess it may be that Voda don't have an 'agreement' with a decent US Network provider.  By the way I did get a welcome text from Voda.

It would be good to get a clear response on the 'rest fo the world' roaming position from Voda.

(apologies for hi-jacking your post!)

[ShelleySmart]

Thank you for your replies.  My Mum has her roaming switched off as this is what Vodafone advised her to do and when I spoke to Vodafone today they also said that it is correct that the data roaming is switched off.

My Mums phone is an Iphone 5s.

Vodafone said they dont have a partner network in USA but their preferred network was AT&T but Mum has tried connecting to this and nothing.

Thanks again

Shelley

[Golfcity · Accepted solution]

Roaming, and using data whilst roaming, are two different things.  Your mum will need roaming switched on as she has signed up to World Travellor which means that for a fixed cost of £5 per day (if she uses her phone, £0 if she doesn't), she can access her voice minutes, text allowance, and data bundle from her UK Voda plan.  There is an option on the phone to enable/disable data whilst roaming which is there to avoid a customer inadvertantly using data whilst abroad and incurring unexpected charges.......but in your mum's case, with World Travellor, she can use her UK plan data as part of the £5 flat world Travellor fee, so she will be able to use the internet as well as calls and texts.   If roaming is switched off on the phone then there will be no services at all outside of the UK.....

If you speak to Voda again, tell them that she has World Travellor service and so roaming should be on.

[jeffkinn]

Perfectly correct. Roaming being off means that the phone will only connect to Vodafone UK.

Also the sub question about 4G in the USA has also been answered. You won't get it - at least not yet.

[Jonneh]

I found a few years back even with roaming on I had to re-set my network settings before I got a connection. 

[ShelleySmart]

Thank you Golfcity.  I shall speak with Vodafone and update you.

[Golfcity]

Okey doke.  My partner has an iPhone 5S and was with me this week in NY so I can look at the actual  'buttons' if you need it.