Question

Roaming Issue (US Cellular) in WV (1 phone fine 1 not)

  • 23 March 2022
  • 9 replies
  • 706 views
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Hello everyone I hope someone can help me get to the bottom of this (I have yet to find an answer anywhere on Reddit, Here, or with Tech Support). 

My wife and I have used Mint for 2 years and it was relatively good which is why we swapped over to T Mobile the other day. The town 2 miles down the street (our biggest “city”) we have always never had service (we get 5 bars but emergency calls only) which we thought was weird since multiple towers are in town and T Mobile maps show signal there. We just got used to it and figured oh well we won’t have signal when we go grocery shopping etc. 

Fast forward the other day, first time going to town since swapping to T Mobile. We both have BYOD , mine is from Samsung Unlocked S22 Ultra and hers is a used Galaxy Z Fold 3 5G. We went to town and she was blown away she had signal in the town which we never have. I did not, I only got the emergency calls only. We figured out it was because she is connecting to US Cellular, which is a HUGE T Mobile roaming partner for WV (they cover a huge majority of the rural areas). That said I tried to manually connect like I have tried on 4 other phones and 4 other sims over the last 2 years. Same error message “sim card not allowed”. This makes no sense because T Mobile obviously uses US Cellular and my wife’s phone who is on my account works amazingly. I have called everyone imaginable and have 2 sim cards coming to try (but I seriously doubt it works since I have had multiple phones and sims over the last 2 years). 

Does anyone know a way to get this fixed? It would be nice to have signal in town. Thank you ahead of time and I appreciate any help. 

9 replies

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Oh and the town is Romney WV (just in case that matters). 

syaoran
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The issue is with US Cellular.  It blocks devices that are not directly sold by them or their roaming partner.  With the Galaxy devices, there are multiple U and U1 models and firmware versions.  With the Z Fold 3, there is only one model for all of the US, so they can’t discriminate against that device.  I had this issue years ago when coming to T-Mobile using a Samsung S9+, which I even flashed to T-Mobile’s U1 firmware but US Cellular restricts the devices by IMEI’s sold by them and T-Mobile.  

After trying to get US Cellular to white list the IMEI for use on their network, which they refused.  I went to the Executive level at T-Mobile to get told, they were allowed to do so because it’s in their roaming agreement.  Domestic roaming is not guaranteed with BOYD’s.  Buying a OnePlus 7 Pro from T-Mobile to replace the S9+ with solved our roaming issues in Beckley and Mullens, WV.  

Syaoran - I am not a T-Mobile Employee but I could use a new job!
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Ahh thank you for the answer. That sucks because my only choice would be to sell my phone and buy a new one (which 512GB s22 ultras are impossible to find through retailers). I guess I will just deal with it for now, kind of sucks they allow them to do that. Also the fact that US Cellular does that being that I am sure a majority of the $ they get is from roaming deals with T Mobile. I had stopped by US Cellular asking if they could whitelist my imei but they had no idea what I was talking about which I figured would not work. 

syaoran
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I spoke to a lot of people at US Cellular about the device.  At the network engineer level, who are actually quite knowledgeable there.  Understood and was aware that how easy Samsung’s were to cross-flash and that even if I flashed the US Cellular U firmware.  They would not allow it to access their network through domestic roaming.  Their system just automatically flags the device as, not compatible with their network, regardless of whether it is or not.  

Syaoran - I am not a T-Mobile Employee but I could use a new job!
drnewcomb
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It was my understanding that T-Mobile had resolved the USCC BYOD roaming issue but apparently not. It has been as @gramps28 says. T-Mobile had to provide USCC with the IMEI blocks of all the devices that they intend to roam USCC’s network. T-Mobile never intended it as a “whitelist” but USCC did. This list includes the TACs of all phones T-Mobile sells. Apparently since iPhones aren’t sold in carrier-specific TAC blocks, all iPhones are on the “whitelist”.

One issue is that for some time the whole issue of USCC roaming was hush-hush, such that T-Mobile couldn’t even mention whose network you were roaming. So, it was hard to get anyone to do anything about it. I suggest you provide T-Force (@TMobileHelp on Twitter) with the IMEI of the problem phone and ask if it can be “added to the roaming whitelist”. It can’t hurt to ask.

I don't speak for T-Mobile.
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You would think T Mobile would have something to say about this, I have seen this issue come up across many forums. You are the first one to give an actual answer though. Thank you for it, at least now I know im just SOL. 

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Yep Tforce denied the existence of this issue. Sent me Sim cards yadda yadda. Nothing worked. I even went as far as selling my s22 ultra and bought a Surface duo 2 because A. I wanted one but B there is no carrier versions. I assumed that would have worked but still nothing. This issue is really old now since I live in rural areas and US cellular is a huge majority of who is around that t-mobile uses for roaming. Thanks everyone for trying to help. 

drnewcomb
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Userlevel 7
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Yep Tforce denied the existence of this issue. Sent me Sim cards yadda yadda. Nothing worked. ...

 

From T-Mobile’s perspective, there is no problem. Any phone T-Mobile sells will work on USCC, hence, there is no problem. The issue comes only with BYODs, over which T-Mobile has no control. The issue is that people who use BYODs tend to be a bit more tech-savy than the average and want answers. For now, the answer seems to be that you need either an iPhone or a branded device.

I don't speak for T-Mobile.
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While I get that, there are some situations like mine. It is physically impossible for me to buy a duo 2 from us cellular or t-mobile. Had there been I would have bought from them but there isn't. Why am I punished for no reason and nowhere on a coverage map does it say "excludes byod" 

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