Any way to disable global roaming on my account?

Forums › 2degrees (including Slingshot, Orcon, Flip, Stuff Fibre, MyRepublic, 2talk and Vocus) › Any way to disable global roaming on my account?

1 | 2 | 3

1398 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#3188483 30-Jan-2024 16:41

nztim:

Aaroona:
I don’t know what else to tell you mate, my experience is not as you suggest.
I was making phone calls and texts (not iMessage) using my Vodafone account. When I am on a desktop I will post a link here about it. It’s not a commonly known feature, but it definitely works as I describe.

Please, do enlighten me on this as I have never heard of it before.

It's been explained above.

Tradepub

Free professional, reference and technical white papers (affiliate link).

cokemaster

Exited
4922 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#3188487 30-Jan-2024 16:55

I have been able to replicate something similar to what @Aaroona described but there are some considerations:

You need a mobile provider that supports overseas Wifi calling eg. One NZ, 2Degrees.
You need that mobile provider to disable international roaming properly. eg. Your SIM not being permitted to attach to foreign networks. If the SIM can attach, the behavior of the iPhone will attempt to use the mobile network FIRST (worse case, triggering a $8 a day charge, best case, call fails due to network permissions/bars).
You need a local SIM or Wifi with data and no port restrictions for Wifi calling (for your One/2 Degrees service).

I successfully use this with my wifes One NZ On account sim on Optus and Telstra (depending on which service she uses) as she works from home from a NZ company.

webhosting

Loose lips may sink ships - Be smart - Don't post internal/commercially sensitive or confidential information!

ashtonaut

614 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3188648 30-Jan-2024 20:46

Following with interest. Traveling to Europe for 8 weeks with an Airalo eSIM and One NZ postpaid plan this year.

Our One NZ account rep did confirm to me that with roaming disabled and wifi calling enabled I should be able to use my iPhone to send and receive SMS and calls to NZ using my (unlimited) plan NZ numbers allowance. If I could also do this when not on wifi and when using my travel data eSIM that would be great!

cokemaster

Exited
4922 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#3188652 30-Jan-2024 21:29

It does work.

Just make sure your iPhones iMessage activation is active prior to going overseas (and don’t turn off your One NZ sim, otherwise it may prompt for iMessage activation). I found with the wife’s account, the only way to get it back was to either go back to NZ (LOL) or turn on roaming for a day (and let it send out the international activation sms).

webhosting

Loose lips may sink ships - Be smart - Don't post internal/commercially sensitive or confidential information!

ashtonaut

614 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3188656 30-Jan-2024 21:38

Sounds good. I’ll be turning off roaming at the account level on my One NZ SIM before I go. VoLTE is enabled by default on iPhones on One NZ, correct? I don’t need to do anything special to turn it on?

cokemaster

Exited
4922 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#3188660 30-Jan-2024 21:59

This is what she sees when it’s running:

On the One NZ connection, I believe the magic is wifi calling:

On the voice portion, note that she has an iPhone 11, no 5G. On 5G models, you might not get an option for VoLTE or 3G.

Another consideration is that country code information might not get presented correctly on inbound calls. This can result in some very confusing missed call results as her phone ID’s 02x as being Sydney. We ‘sorted’ the issue by forwarding the call to her AU number (she has unlimited NZ to AU calling).

Finally - remember that calling within the country you’re visiting will be counted as international. On the $8 roaming, you get calls back to NZ and calls to your roaming country.

Mods - posting on the move, do forgive me for image sizes.

webhosting

Loose lips may sink ships - Be smart - Don't post internal/commercially sensitive or confidential information!

nztim

3699 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

TEAMnetwork

Subscriber

#3188765 31-Jan-2024 10:25

@cokemaster very interesting, so this only works if the Telco 100% disables roaming on the Account level? @Aaroona if 2degress can't do this then pocket wifi is your only option or go back to One NZ

I hate been proved wrong sometimes 🙃

Any views expressed on these forums are my own and don't necessarily reflect those of my employer.

cokemaster

Exited
4922 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#3188780 31-Jan-2024 11:03

Yes - my experience is that:
- Wifi calling is preferred over 3G/4G/5G
- 3G/4G/5G is preferred over “wifi calling” using mobile data.

The secret to making it work is making sure that the NZ service is not able to attach to any roaming network at all. So far - I’ve found that only One NZ postpaid/on account (and Spark if you know the right people, except they don’t support overseas wifi calling) allows you to fully bar the roaming service.

I had tried with 2Degrees and One NZ prepaid, whilst they can block you from making any chargeable events whilst roaming… your device still attaches to the foreign network… which in turn means your iPhone won’t try and use wifi calling over mobile data.

Maybe it was just luck of customer service however.

webhosting

Loose lips may sink ships - Be smart - Don't post internal/commercially sensitive or confidential information!

nztim

3699 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

TEAMnetwork

Subscriber

#3188784 31-Jan-2024 11:12

All sounds too hard, happy to just pay the $8 per day and put the phone into airplane mode when I know I am going to be in Wi-Fi coverage for 24 hours (nz clock)

Any views expressed on these forums are my own and don't necessarily reflect those of my employer.

ashtonaut

614 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3188785 31-Jan-2024 11:13

I have an iPhone 13 and don’t see any VoLTE toggle in the settings menu, I assume that’s because the phone is 5G capable and VoLtE is enabled by default and I don’t need to do anything?

I’ll be sure to get One NZ to block roaming fully at an account level before I travel.

nztim

3699 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

TEAMnetwork

Subscriber

#3188827 31-Jan-2024 13:53

ashtonaut: I have an iPhone 13 and don’t see any VoLTE toggle in the settings menu, I assume that’s because the phone is 5G capable and VoLtE is enabled by default and I don’t need to do anything?

I’ll be sure to get One NZ to block roaming fully at an account level before I travel.

Yes, iPhone 12 and above is VoLTE permanently on, your choices are 5G Auto, 5G On, & 4G you can no longer lock the phone to 3G, 2G, or GSM

TBH not fully researched what the difference is between 5G Auto and 5G on

Any views expressed on these forums are my own and don't necessarily reflect those of my employer.

cokemaster

Exited
4922 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#3188830 31-Jan-2024 13:59

nztim:
All sounds too hard, happy to just pay the $8 per day …

For visiting or travelling, yes the $8 pass makes sense. In my use case,
We’ve been offshore for potentially months-years at a time so $8 a day would hurt :)

When I visit NZ, I personally use the $5 a day roaming pass offered to AU postpaid customers.

webhosting

Loose lips may sink ships - Be smart - Don't post internal/commercially sensitive or confidential information!

Linkzor

45 posts

Geek

#3191532 6-Feb-2024 19:58

I just got back after being overseas for 7 weeks in the USA & Canada. I used my 2degrees prepay SIM just to receive MFA txts for mobile banking, etc. Mobile data & data roaming was disabled for the 2degrees SIM on my Pixel 8 Pro. I disabled my voicemail just before heading overseas as well.

2degrees charged me the $8 roaming fee on 3 occasions even though there was zero data usage, calls (made or received) or txts showing up on their portal. I did send them a message via their website while overseas which they never responded or looked into (how disappointing!). Eventually got a refund after getting in touch with their contact centre however this has been a bit worrying with these unexpected charges and mediocre customer service.

Linux

11220 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#3191534 6-Feb-2024 20:11

@Linkzor This is why you put your handset into Flight mode and enable Wi-Fi for Wi-Fi calling - Zero chance of roaming charges

Linkzor

45 posts

Geek

#3191544 6-Feb-2024 20:32

Linux:

@Linkzor This is why you put your handset into Flight mode and enable Wi-Fi for Wi-Fi calling - Zero chance of roaming charges

Yes but that's not really feasible if you want to run dual sim and simply have the 2degrees sim for receiving MFA txts for banking, etc. These are still being delivered via SMS instead of RCS so you would never receive them while in flight mode as well.

1 | 2 | 3