Skinny Roaming won’t work. Help please

Forums › New Zealand Mobile and Wireless › Skinny Roaming won’t work. Help please

Eva888

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#319282 9-Apr-2025 13:40

I’ve tried everything from the Skinny roaming help page. Am in Australia. Removed sim and put it back, volte is on, mobile data is on, restarted phone a number of times. No one from here or NZ can call me, but I can call out.

Using an iPhone 12 with latest iOS.

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398 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3362297 9-Apr-2025 13:43

What happens when you manually select a network? Say Telstra.....

Jase2985

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#3362298 9-Apr-2025 13:46

got a roaming pack? got credit on your account?

Eva888

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#3362300 9-Apr-2025 13:59

Yes I have a roaming pack. Network selection says Yes Optus. It’s switched to automatic, however I can’t see the Optus sign at the top of the phone. It vanished, was there an hour ago when I tried phoning. Wifi calling is also on.

I tried calling the skinny help number for overseas and nothing. Called daughter’s phone and got through so it’s intermittent. APN is wapaccess.co.nz which is correct by what skinny suggests.

Shows on 4G should that be changed to 5 G

Eva888

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#3362301 9-Apr-2025 14:16

I’ve flicked automatic network selection on off a couple times and it’s chosen Telstra which seems to work. Definitely intermittent though. Been playing up since inception. You can guarantee it won’t work when it’s something urgent. What a waste of an entire morning and a headache to boot.

timmmay

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#3362303 9-Apr-2025 14:24

When my wife was in the UK a couple of years ago we couldn't get Skinny roaming working either, even with the help of Skinny support. We gave up and she got a local SIM.

Aucklandjafa

398 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3362304 9-Apr-2025 14:31

It's weird. I've done quite a bit of travel with Spark roaming (south-east Asia, States, Aussie) and have never once had an issue, yet Skinny customers seem to constantly have issues - it's almost like they're using a different platform.

Behodar

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#3362307 9-Apr-2025 14:57

When you say calls "don't work", what exactly do you mean?

I was there a month ago and maybe 80% of the time outgoing calls (to both NZ and AU) would do absolutely nothing: no ring tone, no nothing. The other 20% of the time they'd work as normal (and were perfectly stable once connected).

I put it down to overloading due to the cyclone, but if you're still getting the same symptoms now then it seems there's something else going on.

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Eva888

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#3362336 9-Apr-2025 16:56

Behodar:

When you say calls "don't work", what exactly do you mean?

I was there a month ago and maybe 80% of the time outgoing calls (to both NZ and AU) would do absolutely nothing: no ring tone, no nothing. The other 20% of the time they'd work as normal (and were perfectly stable once connected).

I put it down to overloading due to the cyclone, but if you're still getting the same symptoms now then it seems there's something else going on.

I mean that I would call another mobile and there would be silence, nothing. So I would hang up. I gave it longer thinking it might be routed to connect. This happened a number of times. I messaged my contacts over wifi for them to call me but they had similar issues only to our phones. Once or twice a call would go through. I noticed on my phone the carrier was Yes Optus. Mr E had Telstra on his and was the first phone to work. Eventually after me switching the mobile provider button on and off automatic it settled with Telstra which has been working fine.

I remember one trip that Skinny said to take out the sim for a minute and put it back in. Did this also which was when it worked momentarily. Mental note to always have a pin or paper clip in the cables bag for such infuriating times when you cannot find anything sharp to open the sim cage.

Behodar

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#3362338 9-Apr-2025 17:20

Sounds like the same issue then. I found that switching networks was a red herring: it worked the first time, but not subsequent times. I can't imagine that removing the SIM would do anything that switching the phone off wouldn't, but I didn't try it.

openmedia

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#3362367 9-Apr-2025 19:39

Disable 5G and force Telstra - Make sure you phone says VOLTE.

If you're running android dial the following "*#*#4636#*#*"

Then see if you have an LTE carrier and LTE is provisioned.

Generally known online as OpenMedia, now working for Red Hat APAC as a Technology Evangelist and Portfolio Architect. Still playing with MythTV and digital media on the side.

Linux

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#3362478 9-Apr-2025 20:26

Removing the SIM card is a waste of time - Just power cycle the handset and manual network selection

openmedia

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#3362498 9-Apr-2025 23:55

Linux:

Removing the SIM card is a waste of time - Just power cycle the handset and manual network selection

+1 - I've had a number of trips where Voice won't kick in until I performed a reboot.

Generally known online as OpenMedia, now working for Red Hat APAC as a Technology Evangelist and Portfolio Architect. Still playing with MythTV and digital media on the side.

Eva888

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#3362518 10-Apr-2025 08:16

Sim removal was suggested on the Skinny website.

6. Perform a restart of your device. Take your SIM card out for around 1 minute, put everything back together and then retry to make a call.

@openmedia phone is Apple and working ok now thanks. Volte was on. I think your suggestion to force Telstra is what did the trick and I must have done it by luck fiddling with the network options. While it was hovering between Yes Optus and Telstra it was problematic. Once Telstra was the carrier voice kicked in.

Linux

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#3362519 10-Apr-2025 08:23

@eva888 that is the dumbest answer to a help topic on an official website ever lol 😆 😂 🤣 😅

Eva888

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#3362524 10-Apr-2025 08:44

Linux:

@eva888 that is the dumbest answer to a help topic on an official website ever lol 😆 😂 🤣 😅

Maybe, but us desperate mere mortals will try anything suggested including beat the phone on the pavement if told to :)

Thought I was smart to start the roaming in Wellington so it would roam on landing because last trip Airport wifi wouldn’t connect and I couldn’t turn on roaming to call anyone. Sydney Airport WiFi worked this time and I used the app to call an Uber so didn’t realise until next morning that roaming wasn’t working.

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