Question

International roaming / India - has issues

  • 19 September 2021
  • 39 replies
  • 21842 views
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39 replies

A

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

H

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. 

N

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.

F
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Userlevel 7
Badge +16

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 like many others come onto this site for assistance and to help others. Marking a reply as helpful or correct helps others with like issues when they try to search the site for assistance. I do not work for Tmobile and my suggestions and or opinions are my own**.~~~~ The site here is primarily peer to peer with some TMO moderation to keep the site in order..They do not have account access..The prefered method would be to contact TMO through either calling in (tier 1 support) or by contacting them through either Facebook/Twitter (tier 2 support)**~~~~
T

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. 

U

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.

G
Userlevel 3
Badge +2

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

M

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. 

S

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....

N
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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.

N
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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.

S

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.

N
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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 ?

drnewcomb
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +11

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

I don't speak for T-Mobile.

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