Question

legacy pay as you go not receiving calls in Canada

  • 19 November 2022
  • 2 replies
  • 198 views

Badge

My wife is in Vancouver Canada and I am in Washington DC.  Her T-mobile phone has a DC 202 area code; mine has a Maryland 301 area code. We both have legacy pay as you go plans that are up to date with Tmobile’s latest microSIM cards and new 4GLTE/3G/2G capable phones.  She is roaming, probably on Rogers, possibly Telus/Bell, and she can make calls to the states and to her family in Canada.  However, when I call her phone from a landline in the states, it just rings; I can’t even leave voicemail.  When I call from my T-mobile cell, again from the US, the line immediately clicks and the screen says “call ended.” When I call through my Google Voice number, I get a busy signal. For what it’s worth, she has Data Roaming on even though neither of us has data, and I’ve rebooted my phone in airplane mode. I’ve talked to several Tmobile reps both by phone and in stores and it sounds as if T-mobile made some changes with their partner roaming companies because their new prepaid plans require international passes even for voice outside of the USA. I’m told there are no such passes available for the legacy plan and this never used to be an issue when Canada still had 2G networks.  T-mobile still has 2G in parts of the US but Canada completely abandoned it. 


2 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +15

Is roaming enabled on her device?  T-Mobile's current roaming partner is for Canada is Bell/Telus and has been since about 2016.  Is she able to get texts at all?  Can she call you from her device while in Vancouver?

Badge

She is heading back home now but I was able to confirm she was able to receive and reply to texts from me and others in the States.  The only roaming setting on her Nokia 225, if it’s like my Nokia 6300, a slightly fancier dumbphone with wireless, is “data roaming,” and it was on, though neither of us have data as part of this plan. She can call me from Vancouver just fine but I can’t call her. I forgot to ask what roaming partner was displayed on her screen.

Reply