AT&T Roaming in Europe?

[RadioRaiders]

Has anyone here had problems roaming in Europe with their AT&T accounts? I've had 3 friends in the last year visit Amsterdam, Berlin and Zürich and all had problems connecting to the Euro networks. With one person, it worked intermittentally, and the other 2 couldn't connect at all (during 2 weeks).

Their phones were all triple or quad-band and in good coverage areas, and tried several re-starts (ie: remove SIM and battery and restart).

It was the first time travelling overseas with their AT&T accounts for all 3 of them. Before one left he contacted AT&T and said he'd be going to Europe and they said they had to activate his roaming profile (huh? ...shouldn't all post-paid accounts allow roaming internationally?) He was the only one of my 3 friends who could connect (but then only after a few days, and when going to other countries he had the same problems connecting again)

I'm wondering if AT&T is automatically disabling international roaming for new accounts? Maybe you have to specifically request international roaming now for some reason?

[Charlyee]

Wirelessly posted (Treo 750: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; IEMobile 7.6) UP.Link/6.3.1.17.06.3.1.17.0)

Hey RR, yes you have to ask international roaming and long distance be enabled on your account.

I believe the requirements are that you have to be a customer in good standing for 90 days but AT&T has been known to wave the 90 days sometimes. As I understand, this is so that AT&T is not left with a bunch of roaning charges that they have to pay but a new customer might default on.

I have been roaming with AT&T all my GSM life in Europe & Asia - nary a problem ever.

I actually check to ensure that it is still enabled every time I leave the US.

[RadioRaiders]

Originally Posted by Charlyee

Wirelessly posted (Treo 750: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; IEMobile 7.6) UP.Link/6.3.1.17.06.3.1.17.0)

Hey RR, yes you have to ask international roaming and long distance be enabled on your account.

I believe the requirements are that you have to be a customer in good standing for 90 days but AT&T has been known to wave the 90 days sometimes..

Hey, Ok, thanks Charlyee. One person who subscribed to AT&T then went to Europe within 30 days of subscribing; he did ask AT&T to activate international roaming, but it seemed to have problems in Switzerland (worked OK in Amsterdam). Maybe since he travelled abroad so quickly after subscribing, maybe his roaming profile somehow had some problems The other 2 people had AT&T a few months, but it was their first time travelling abroad, and they didn't think to ask AT&T about activating international roaming. So I guess that would explain it.

...strange, I just assumed international roaming was automatic with post-paid accounts. But I guess it varies by operator. Now I know better

[JR1]

I have used mine in the UK (England and Wales) without any problems. Make sure the international roaming is on the account. Also add the 5.99 per month world plan for cheaper roaming.

A quad band phone will work best.

[joelliot]

Internation roamin was not on my accounts by default. You have to ask for it. I had to answer a couple of questoins from my credit report -- mainly things like where I had lived. I assume it was some for of additional identity check.

[RadioRaiders]

Originally Posted by bettyf

I travelled last year to Switzerland and I had connectivity problems as well. I had specifically called to get it enabled for there but I still had trouble. No trouble in germany though

It's the intermittent thing that makes me wonder. Of course it could be due to lack of coverage (ie: a 3 band phone in a rural area) But my friend had a quad-band phone and was in good coverage areas, but still couldn't connect to the network for a few days. So that makes it something network related. I was guessing maybe SS7 signaling from Switzerland to the USA Or maybe something in AT&T's HLR (where your profile and roaming rights are stored) Hard to speculate...

[jayatmtu]

Originally Posted by RadioRaiders

Hey, Ok, thanks Charlyee. One person who subscribed to AT&T then went to Europe within 30 days of subscribing; he did ask AT&T to activate international roaming, but it seemed to have problems in Switzerland (worked OK in Amsterdam). Maybe since he travelled abroad so quickly after subscribing, maybe his roaming profile somehow had some problems The other 2 people had AT&T a few months, but it was their first time travelling abroad, and they didn't think to ask AT&T about activating international roaming. So I guess that would explain it.

...strange, I just assumed international roaming was automatic with post-paid accounts. But I guess it varies by operator. Now I know better

I activated a new AT&T account, turned on international roaming, and went to Denmark all on the same day and everything has worked great.

[hme83]

Originally Posted by Charlyee

Wirelessly posted (Treo 750: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; IEMobile 7.6) UP.Link/6.3.1.17.06.3.1.17.0)

Hey RR, yes you have to ask international roaming and long distance be enabled on your account.

I believe the requirements are that you have to be a customer in good standing for 90 days but AT&T has been known to wave the 90 days sometimes. As I understand, this is so that AT&T is not left with a bunch of roaning charges that they have to pay but a new customer might default on.

I have been roaming with AT&T all my GSM life in Europe & Asia - nary a problem ever.

I actually check to ensure that it is still enabled every time I leave the US.

A bit tangential, but I believe you need to have international roaming and long distance activated on your account in order to receive the subsidy unlock code for your phone from at&t as well. I don't know that I've really seen any comments about it recently, but it doesn't hurt to check before requesting a subsidy unlock code.

[viewfly]

Charlyee responded first correctly. It has always been, from Cingular through ATT that you need to ask ATT to activated international roaming before you go. It is stated clearly on the web page, and I'm surprised your friends didn't at least check out the roaming rates first and realize that it needs to be turned on.

Once on, it remains on and you no longer need to ask again.

The very first time I roamed internationally, over 10 years ago, even doing all things right, it didn't work the first day. I had to call ATT's number special overseas help line to fix it. I was told then that it can take some time for all countries to receive updated information that your SIM card is okay for roaming in that country. Hence that would explain the multi day delay among countries. So it is best to get this authorized some time ahead of your travel.

I called this number and they fixed it over the phone. They specialize in overseas roaming.

"If you have problems or questions while roaming outside the U.S., contact AT&T by calling +1-916-843-4685 (a free call from your wireless phone)."


So maybe the friend with the working phone call on for the other two.

Also,

http://www.wireless.att.com:80/learn...al-roaming.jsp

[dmapr]

Originally Posted by viewfly

Charlyee responded first correctly. It has always been, from Cingular through ATT that you need to ask ATT to activated international roaming before you go. It is stated clearly on the web page, and I'm surprised your friends didn't at least check out the roaming rates first and realize that it needs to be turned on.

Once on, it remains on and you no longer need to ask again.

I realize the thread is almost a year old, but there has been an update in the KB article that now mentions the fact that international roaming may get turned on automatically (and I've seen this happen, BTW). Just FYI.

International roaming

[viewfly]

My apologies. This thread came up when I did new posts this morning. I don't understand why.

[Charlyee]

Originally Posted by viewfly

My apologies. This thread came up when I did new posts this morning. I don't understand why.

There was a SPAM post made this morning at 4:29 CDT, that was deleted. Perhaps that post, although totally unrelated to the thread's topic is the reason..

[hme83]

Originally Posted by dmapr

I realize the thread is almost a year old, but there has been an update in the KB article that now mentions the fact that international roaming may get turned on automatically (and I've seen this happen, BTW). Just FYI.

International roaming

Since we've opened the topic back up -

International roaming/long distance was turned on automatically on my account (Cingular) several years back (2006). I never asked for it (never had reason to have done so), and it was initiated at some point within six months of the account opening.

Flip side - now I've added a FAN discount to my existing IRU account and they've removed the international roaming/long distance. Apparently I have to "requalify". (Or call customer service if I ever get around to it.)