Terrible roaming experience in USA

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tchart

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#298856 22-Jul-2022 03:33

Obviously it’s been a while since anyone traveled but does anyone have any recent experiences with roaming in the USA.

Pre pandemic I traveled to the US a lot and never had any issues with roaming.

However this trip has been a nightmare.

Roaming hardly works. Barely get 3G and probably 80% of the time no internet connection

In the past 3 weeks it’s been the same in the following cities;

Los Angeles
Anaheim
San Diego
Palm Springs
San Francisco

So it doesn’t seem to be isolated to one city or region. These are places I’ve visited before without issue.

We have 2 phones on roaming; iPhone 12 and 12 pro max - Same thing on both.

Now I don’t know if it’s a capacity thing or whether 2 degrees new roaming model is to blame but it’s really annoying knowing you are paying $7 a day ($14 in our case) for roaming that barely works.

Is it worth bringing this up with 2 degrees?

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#2945018 22-Jul-2022 05:31

Trev - Don't think its a 2degrees issues. We were roaming on Vodafone and it was absoutely terrible in the last week and a bit.
On my iPhone 13 Pro and iPads - barely had 3G - data was incedibly slow. Calls were just about non-existant.

Bit shocked given we were in downtown LA and San Diego and it was so bad!

Pre-COVID - Had zero issues with data roaming and calls on Vodafone but it was just unuseable this time around.

Its as if most of the providers in the US have simply cut back on capacity or the networks are overloaded.

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NZFINEST

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#2945020 22-Jul-2022 07:13

AT&T at the start of the year turned off their 3G network. T Mobile has just done the same as well. If you have a wifi calling enabled device that can be used and the calls charged as if the call was made from within NZ. However wifi is not everywhere and not all phones support wifi calling. Something like Whatsapp or Facetime is another option.

Anything I suggest or say is my own thoughts and not provided by anyone else unless stated

SaltyNZ

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#2945021 22-Jul-2022 07:17

tchart:

Roaming hardly works. Barely get 3G and probably 80% of the time no internet connection

The US is in the process of shutting down 3G, so no, I would not expect 3G service to be great.

iPad Pro 11" + iPhone 15 Pro Max + 2degrees 4tw!

These comments are my own and do not represent the opinions of 2degrees.

Linux

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#2945023 22-Jul-2022 07:28

Not surprised about this thread with the changes going on in the US and 3G getting shut down

4G / VoLTE roaming anyone?

quickymart

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#2945026 22-Jul-2022 07:51

It sounds like the 4G coverage doesn't quite match the 3G coverage that used to be there. I wonder what it will be like the next time I visit the US (date to be determined); last time I was there in 2013 I found the coverage was quite good, and I was travelling around the Midwest quite a bit.

Linux

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#2945031 22-Jul-2022 08:14

4G coverage is great in the US but remember you need handsets that support the correct band plan/s

4G 700 in the US is different that 4G 700 used everywhere else in the world

Jiriteach

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#2945134 22-Jul-2022 08:59

I was barely able to pick up 4G coverage. Using the latest iPhone 13 Pro - Couldnt even manually select a network - just kept searching so it kept connecting to T-Mobile. Even when I did get 4G - speed was terrible. This was roaming on Vodafone last week.

quickymart

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#2945148 22-Jul-2022 09:22

Linux:

4G coverage is great in the US but remember you need handsets that support the correct band plan/s

4G 700 in the US is different that 4G 700 used everywhere else in the world

John - this may have been posted before, but is there a chart or something that lists all this? Also is there somewhere I can lookup a handset and see if it matches what frequency is used there and if my handset supports it? I know there used to be a site that did all this in the past but I can't remember what it was now :(

Dochart

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#2945176 22-Jul-2022 10:41

quickymart:

Linux:

4G coverage is great in the US but remember you need handsets that support the correct band plan/s

4G 700 in the US is different that 4G 700 used everywhere else in the world

John - this may have been posted before, but is there a chart or something that lists all this? Also is there somewhere I can lookup a handset and see if it matches what frequency is used there and if my handset supports it? I know there used to be a site that did all this in the past but I can't remember what it was now :(

https://www.kimovil.com/en/frequency-checker/

quickymart

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#2945182 22-Jul-2022 10:57

Thanks, I don't think that was it but never seen that one before. Very helpful! 🙂

tchart

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#2945249 22-Jul-2022 13:52

Thanks everyone. Yes it was truely shocking. I’ve had edge, 3G and very minimal 4G. No 5G at all.

But mostly no internet. I’ve had to rely on offline maps - however managed to get lost in Palm Springs when outside the downloaded area.

plas

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#2945265 22-Jul-2022 14:30

When I was in LA last month roaming was bad. S20 Ultra both with vodafone and 2degrees.

It took at least 1 hour to start working when I landed and required turning the phone off multiple times, then at the hotel you would get data for 10mins or so then it would stop.

quickymart

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#2945444 22-Jul-2022 17:32

I wonder if Spark's roaming experience is impacted in the same way?

Linux

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#2945446 22-Jul-2022 17:37

quickymart:
I wonder if Spark's roaming experience is impacted in the same way?

100% Would be

tchart

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#2945454 22-Jul-2022 17:58

SaltyNZ:
tchart:

Roaming hardly works. Barely get 3G and probably 80% of the time no internet connection

The US is in the process of shutting down 3G, so no, I would not expect 3G service to be great.

The problem is there was literally no service - very little 3G and even less 4G, never saw 5G as far as I can remember. The places we visited were not out in the sticks either.

It’s not really acceptable especially given the $7 per day charge. Why are we paying for something when you can’t use it?

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