Problems when roaming in India are just par for the course. Do you have a PING utility on your phone? Try PINGing the numeric address “8.8.8.8” to see what happens.

There would be no advantage to Vodafone in not connecting your data.

Call International support at +1-505-998-3793 (free from your T-Mobile phone)

https://www.t-mobile.com/support/coverage/international-roaming-checklist

After  4 weeks  in India,  this problem  remains unsolved.  Numerous calls to  tech support resulted only in apologies  and  un-diagnosed  status.  Strangely,  when i moved to a big city  (called  Bangalore), i experienced  no  issues on the first day,   same  “no data connection”  on  second  day,  and then  it started  working  fine  later part of  2nd day.  It was working  in  Delhi  during my  initial  landing.   But,  the  city  of  Coimbatore  consistently  had  “no  data connection”  for  3 weeks.   Talked to local partner, and  they  tried to connect the  phone  directly  to their   APN.   No  luck.  T-mobile  just said   “tower  issue”   and  left  it at that.    This  would be  another  blow  to  account,  since  I will have to visit  this  city  of  Coimbatore  often  in future  and  I  would require  connection  (as  a  backup).   It maybe  was bumped  upto  Engineering  (with a  trouble ticket  assigned),  but  no  call or email from them.   They  simply   overwhelmed  after  the  recent   security  breach.

What  can i do  to  get this resolved ?

I have the same stupid issue in a place called Trichy and it’s the same answer - Tower problem. It’s pathetic and I feel, TMobile has to do something. On call with Tmobile.

6  hours  phone call  and  1  month  later,  this problem  is  not yet  solved.  I  travelled  to  a  bigger  city  (Bangalore)  and  4G data  worked  there fine.  When  i  travel  back to  Coimbatore,  my  data  connection  does  not happen  (even though  signal  is  strong  and  i am  at center of city).    The  phone  i have  is a   LG  Q7+  (T mobile)   running   Android  9   software  version   Q610TA20g,   

Wonder  if  people  who have   a  Samsung  also  have this issue  in  Indian  small  towns.   Last  time i travelled to  India,  (2 years ago)  this was  not an  issue.

Towards the end of my trip, for couple of days,  I noticed that the phone was able to get  data  (but  in  2G  speed.  I saw a  2G  icon at top of  my  android phone  for  last  2 days,  during a 40 day trip to India).   So,  this is still not working,  but  at least we know  they are trying to  do something about the issue  (though  unsuccessfully so far).  

Has anyone else noticed  data connection  issues  in the small cities  of  India ?  I used to  get 3G  speeds  (even  in very small cities of  the southern states of  India)  when  i visited  couple of years ago.  Now  even in a  significant  city  of  india,  i  got  only  2 G  speed - that too after  bugging  Tmobile  about it  for  many days, wasting  hours  of  time  with  customer service.

I have the same exact problem. Works flawlessly in Bangalore, and no data or lowest 2G occasionally. Tmobile wasted 4 hours of my time to troubleshoot their problem. I'm glad i came across this. My company phone Verizon works flawlessly. Time to ditch tmobile....

I was in India until yesterday - it worked fine everywhere except Pune.   Few times i got it to work in Pune but it will go to just Edge  and never goes to 4G and drops.  The sad part is - i have been roaming for over 8+ years and in India TMO used to have several roaming partners now it only connects to Vodafone India now. 

T-Mobile is unable to guarantee roaming partners' performance. Also, your device needs to be compatible with whatever network bands are being used by the foreign carriers. It's always a good idea to check before you travel: https://www.t-mobile.com/support/coverage/international-roaming-checklist

Hi I am also facing same problem now when in India. For last 1.5 weeks not able to get 4G Data service while in roaming using TMobile service from USA. I have the HIGH speed services activated for roaming in India for 1 month (paid for that), as I will be in India for 30+ days, need high speed data while I am in my Home town (near Kharagpur, West Bengal).

Looks like TMobile has roaming agreement only with Vodafone, Even though there are other 4G n/w coverage (JIO/Airtel) and Vodafone-4G at my location now, but I am not able to connect to any of the 4G n/w. It just gets service over Vodafone - 3G n/w. 

Looks like TMobile is not doing fair job for their customer, although they said/promised to provide High speed data services (like 15 GB high speed data while in roaming for 1 month) while in Roaming in India, but they failed to provide 4G data service in rural areas of India. This become helpless for us, TMobile should take corrective action ASAP now. Its really frustration for us.

Please suggest if any tips.

I am facing the same issue in Bhopal, India. My phone shows full bars but intermittent data connection. This is a complete farce. This was one of the main reasons and I switched to T-Mobile from AT&T and selected Magenta Max. This is not fair to the customer. I am okay with having 2G data speeds as long as it is consistent and I don’t lose data.  But this is a joke what I am experiencing. T-Mobile can not make the claims of unlimited 2G data on international roaming if the service is not reliable at all. 

keep in mind that the issue might not be on the TMO side of things...you ARE roaming on a completely different countries network..just like ours they’re not issue free.

plus you should plug your location into here and see what the results are.. might explain what you have going on or in this case NOT going on while there

https://www.t-mobile.com/coverage/roaming?icid=WMM_TM_U_18INTLTRVL_1EHW93IKD94W1YF9E18213

I upgraded my T-Mobile plan to Magenta Max hoping to not have the connectivity issues I had on my earlier trips to India (Hyderabad, Pune, Chennai and Delhi). 

I just returned after spending 11 days in Hyderabad. I literally had no connectivity for 95% of my time though I was staying in the heart of the High tech City. As soon as I left Westin Hotel in the High tech City, I would see zero bars on my phone. Sometimes, I will see 3 or 4 bars but no connectivity. Outside the high tech city, I always had 0 bars on my phone. Basically I couldn’t use my phone in Hyderabad without a wi-fi connection. I felt like I was living in the stone age with T-Mobile. Not sure, why I am paying T-Mobile for the Magenta Max plan for connectivity in India - I had connectivity in Delhi most times but none in Hyderabad.

I must say that T-Mobile continues to majorly disappoint its subscriber for connectivity in India. I had terrible experience on my prior trips and I thought it was due to not buying their international pass. On my previous trip, I bought the pass and had the same issue.

T-Mobile talks big about high quality and customer care but it seems that they are aware of this problem (this thread and many such threads) and have decided to do nothing about it. I would probably be switching to ATT or Verizon after my contract (new phone payments) are done.  I travel to India a lot and seamless connectivity across India is critical for me.

I am glad that I didn’t waste hours with t-mobile support based on the experience of the folks on this thread. 

Highly disappointed T-mobile.

I have been a T-Mobile ONE plan user since 2017. I have successfully used international roaming in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Peru, Switzerland and the UK. As recently as 2019, I used international roaming in India with the IDEA network. 
I am in India right now in a not-small-at-all city called Pune. More people live here than in Michigan. Here, I have been getting Vodafone IDEA (Vi) India Talk and Text network but no data at all. It is such a struggle being abroad and not even being able to use Uber or Maps or Translate. I am not a heavy user at all so 2G speeds work very well for me as long as I can I can travel independently and safely. However with the current situation, that’s just not possible. I have had to go and buy a different Indian SIM card for my visit.

My colleagues have told me that IDEA was taken over by Vodafone India in September 2020. Maybe this change is affecting our ability to use International Roaming Data on our T-Mobile plans. 

Day 2 of 2w trip and I am experiencing the same issue as reported above for Pune. when in Mimbai, I was able to connect and use data as normal, but in Pune, I see all bars but no data. When trying to connect on other TMO roaming partner manually - Airtel or JIO, get the error that cannot register. 2 years ago, this was working fine here but now the issue is very bad. Have asked TMO to issue a service request towards Vi India, hopefully they can fix the issue. 

Someone in the technical team at TMO should be reviewing these and trying to identify how to fix for international roamers as it is very difficult to manage without data connectivity

When you complain, be sure to mention that T-Mobile’s roaming maps show service in Pune and that they should either fix the roaming or the map.

The tech team are so disinterested in actually solving the issue. They literally claim it is a signal problem with the local tower. I have another phone with an Indian plan that is getting great signal with Vi as well as data. They made me change phones and try as well. No dice.

I spent 3 hrs daily for 3 consecutive days with the techs on the phone trying to resolve the matter. Tried all sorts of things but no luck. They kept on saying everything looks OK on our side, so issues with roaming partner Vi. Even got a high speed data pass added to check, no luck! 

the other question is - if there are multiple roaming partners in India & Pune, why can we not manually select other partners? Ever since I got attached to Vi, it wouldnt connect to another partner even when I forced it to. Power off, keep network selection in Manual should allow other TMO roaming partners (Airtel, JIO) to register, but no, it would only attach to Vi. Looks like roaming relationship needs to be evaluated and this issue to be brought out by TMO to their partners. 

Anyone found any fix for Tmobile-Vodafone coverage issue in Pune ? With E after the strong network bars, there is no connection or data flowing at all. 

My friend paid $50/month (or 4 weeks) for international roaming and was fine in major metros.  My brother-in-law travels to interior Tamil Nādu and AP.  he got a data device from a local provider and connects to Wi-Fi to that device.

He had no problems once he has latched on to the WIFI.  I do not know the cost of a wifi / data device with different providers.

I received message on arrival that my T-Mobile plan gives data at up to 256 Kbps.. however this is false. I was never able to get Internet during the 2 weeks stay in Pune.  Even adding the 15 GB international data pass was of no use…T-Mobile is providing false and misleading information about the data roaming service in India.

oh im sure they have data roaming over there..however they dont have to much control on forcing them to fix their towers or for them to make adjustments to their roaming...that would be on the tower owners over there to handle.

I have been trying to use my T-mobile service on several of my trips to India over the past 10 years- Come back from each trip frustrated whenever I tries to use. In large cities it works good percentage of times, but once in the country side, and that includes National Highways, it rarely works. Initially, I spent lot of time talking to the customer service of T-mobile and also local partners. Yes, I am talking about the areas where T-mo maps show it’s in the covered areas. Now I just turn it on only when I have wifi access. I understand the frequency bands used for the handsets sold in USA may be sometimes different from the ones Indian cell sites use (there are always at least some common bands where the handset should lock on), but I even tried using T-mobile sim on  Indian handsets, but still they don’t work. It’s same whether you buy a roaming package or use free slow speed data you get with the magenta plans - I tried both. This probably is the problem with the setup with the Indian carriers, but it’s for T-mobile to coordinate with them and get it fixed. We cannot take it up with them individually where we are not even their paying customers. I don’t think T-mobile cares.

My parents just went to India for the past three weeks,and the went to Gujarat, Ahmedabad, Banglore, and Mysore and surrounding areas. We the magenta plus for business plan. My mother was able to use WhatsApp for texting, audio and video, along with gps waze/Google maps. We had a great experience with the service and it was working in both the city and also rural area. We were able to able over hour long conversation with very little drop in call.

The only recommendation I have have which might make a difference is to make sure you have roaming turned on your phone. Each phone does it differently, but make sure you turn on roaming in all settings in for phone.

I have had this same problem. When I landed in New Delhi airport on July 1, 2022, it kinda worked, though slow, but that is expected. I have spent the last few days in Guwahati, a pretty large city. Apart from the inability to get to the internet, I have another problem: the data service rarely works, including texts. This is a severe problem for me as whenever I try to make a purchase using my US credit cards they send a code in a text to my registered phone number for verification. But since I don’t receive these texts (except sometimes with a random delay that can last hours, by which time the purchase is timed out), I cannot use my credit cards. All the while, my phone shows LTE with 50% bars (with an R on top to indicate roaming, and the Settings show that the SIM is now registered to “vi India”). Strangely, occasionally it works great; I have even had a video call once through Whatsapp with a person in the US.

After reading this forum I decided it’s not worth my time to talk to T mobile about connection issues; they are clearly aware of it but decided not to do anything about it. 

I think we should not give up. We are being cheated here by T-Mobile. I think a lot of us with families back in India, we signed up for T-Mobile because of the draw of Simple Global. I know I did. Otherwise, I was a happy AT&T customer for 20 years. My phone bill was lower with AT&T as well. I am paying higher because I thought Simple Global will be simpler on my trips to India. But it is not. As soon as you go out of metropolitan cities, roaming just doesn’t work. I was in Agra for two days on my last trip and it didn’t work. Imagine, going to one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world and Simple Global not working. How can T-Mobile even advertise Simple Global Roaming coverage in India with a straight face? 

Has anyone found out where, which department, which phone number we need to complain to fix this? We cannot let T-Mobile off the hook for this.