Spark Roaming - Sort Of

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Dingbatt

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#257054 12-Sep-2019 16:35

I'm a Spark on account customer. I bought a couple of roaming packs to use while in Australia on holiday.
Data seemed to work perfectly well for things like maps/navigation and general internet stuff but when I tried to access things like my banking apps or even the Spark app it wouldn't connect on mobile data. The same apps would connect on the hotel WiFi but I'm not happy using WiFi for banking particularly. The roaming was with OptusAU. Now that I'm home again all the apps happily connect via mobile data.
I assume it may be to do with security but my wife's phone on Vodafone was able to connect to those apps while roaming in the same location.
I can't see any settings within the apps themselves that would make any difference.

Any GZers able to shed some light on a setting I may have missed, or why this is happening?

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old3eyes

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#2316732 12-Sep-2019 19:14

My wife had similar problems in July roaming on Optus accessing some websites and services. When I switched her to Telstra the problem went away but calling back to NZ was a problem as everything had to have +64 in front of all calls where on Optus she didn't.

Regards,

Old3eyes

freitasm

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#2316764 12-Sep-2019 20:06

Having +64 is a standard and much easier than learning the (different) codes each country need for a international call to be connected. The + is automatically replaced with the appropriate code when the call setup is done.

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Dingbatt

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#2316903 13-Sep-2019 07:48

So besides the +64 prefix (which I have set up anyway) am I going to have to manually select Telstra any time I go to Oz if it grabs an Optus connection? I assumed it would automatically roam via the correct provider. Or is there no ‘correct’ provider in Australia?

“We’ve arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. Carl Sagan 1996

andyb

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#2316944 13-Sep-2019 08:59

On arrival, generally speaking, your mobile will select the strongest available network based on your location and your device. You should however be able to use your banking apps etc on Optus without any issues, given they worked fine on Telstra suggests something’s not right.

I’ll get the team to do some remote testing and contact the carrier to run some traces to see if they can workout what the issue is.

Cheers
Andrew
Andrew Bluck
Manager of Roaming
Spark NZ

andyb

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#2316946 13-Sep-2019 09:01

Meant to add. Optus has call correction Software in place that corrects dialling errors like not adding the correct prefix, that’s why you don’t have to add the +64 etc when roaming on Optus.

andyb

graham007

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#2316996 13-Sep-2019 09:26

andyb: On arrival, generally speaking, your mobile will select the strongest available network based on your location and your device. You should however be able to use your banking apps etc on Optus without any issues, given they worked fine on Telstra suggests something’s not right.

I’ll get the team to do some remote testing and contact the carrier to run some traces to see if they can workout what the issue is.

Cheers
Andrew
Andrew Bluck
Manager of Roaming
Spark NZ

Andrew great to have you on board here at the forums

Can you please comment if in the near future ( say 6 months to 1 yr ) can we expect a seamless roaming exp which voda offers 70+ countries at a competitive price point , or if not , what sort of products / tech advancements are you currently working on at the moment to bring to spark network

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Dingbatt

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#2317030 13-Sep-2019 10:06

andyb: On arrival, generally speaking, your mobile will select the strongest available network based on your location and your device. You should however be able to use your banking apps etc on Optus without any issues, given they worked fine on Telstra suggests something’s not right.

I’ll get the team to do some remote testing and contact the carrier to run some traces to see if they can workout what the issue is.

Cheers
Andrew
Andrew Bluck
Manager of Roaming
Spark NZ

Thanks for the response Andrew.

Just to confirm, in my case I didn’t change the provider to Telstra so I can’t comment on whether that changed the app response. The only comparison made was with my wife’s VF phone.

Was a bit frustrating because I rely on being able to check banking on mobile data.

Additionally, it would be handy when you buy multi roaming packs to cover a period of more than 7 days that Spark’s system checks before sending a “your pack expires at midnight, buy another pack” (paraphrasing) text, instead a text saying “your new pack will activate on first use after midnight” would be much more reassuring and less ambiguous. Especially when you can’t access the Spark App to confirm the second pack is waiting.

“We’ve arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. Carl Sagan 1996

andyb

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#2318454 16-Sep-2019 12:44

graham007:

Can you please comment if in the near future ( say 6 months to 1 yr ) can we expect a seamless roaming exp which voda offers 70+ countries at a competitive price point , or if not , what sort of products / tech advancements are you currently working on at the moment to bring to spark network

Apologies for the delayed response, I have been out of the office.

I would argue that we have a seamless roaming experience at the moment. We launched auto purchase aka walk off working about 18 months ago, this automatically purchases a roaming pack on arrival, and as required. There's some info on our website, www.spark.co.nz/roaming.

I would also argue that our price point is very competitive given Vodafone have increased their daily roaming offering to $7/day. I understand it depends on the duration roaming, but given the average trip is 4 days, the vast majority of customers get value out of the packs. Our current destination list (about 44) covers over 92% of NZ'ders departing by destination.

andyb

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#2318455 16-Sep-2019 12:47

Dingbatt:

Thanks for the response Andrew.

Just to confirm, in my case I didn’t change the provider to Telstra so I can’t comment on whether that changed the app response. The only comparison made was with my wife’s VF phone.

Was a bit frustrating because I rely on being able to check banking on mobile data.

Additionally, it would be handy when you buy multi roaming packs to cover a period of more than 7 days that Spark’s system checks before sending a “your pack expires at midnight, buy another pack” (paraphrasing) text, instead a text saying “your new pack will activate on first use after midnight” would be much more reassuring and less ambiguous. Especially when you can’t access the Spark App to confirm the second pack is waiting.

Yes, I can understand the frustration, I appreciate you taking the time to raise the issue, if we don't know about issues we can't fix them.

I'll provide your feedback to the props team with regards to travel for periods of more than 7 days, the average trip duration is about 7 days, but I totally understand that there are roamers that fall below and above that trip time.

We are making continuous improvements to our messaging when roaming, I'll feed your comments on to the relevant team as well.

Regards

Andrew

andyb

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#2318457 16-Sep-2019 12:49

I noticed this too recently when in Aus on Roaming.

I debugged it down to an MTU problem. I worked around it by firing up a VPN back to home, everything worked great then.

I meant to mention it to some Spark people I know, but never did.