Forum Discussion

AshleySt_923617's avatar
AshleySt_923617
SMARTY Pioneer
01-01-2025

No Service Abroad

I’ve recently travelled to, and am still in Perth Australia, and consistently have ‘No Service’ or ‘SOS Only’.

I’ve verified the following:

  • Updated the mobile data network settings for mobile data and MMS to mob.asm.net
  • Travelled to various locations to before not a local mast or signal issue
  • Turned off automatic network selection and tried to manually select a network in the list that appears
  • Turned the phone off/on
  • Reset the mobile data network settings for both data and MMS, and then re-entered the mob.asm.net settings 

Not that the below two points should affect the connection to a mobile network here, however I have also verified that:

  • Have data roaming turned on
  • Have out of plan credit

Does anyone have any advice or similar experience?

Australia

21 Replies

  • MSF's avatar
    MSF
    SMARTY Guru
    02-01-2025

    AshleySt_923617 It may depend upon what phone you have. There was some info about the Australian networks not accepting any phone that would not work on VoLTE I believe.

  • AshleySt_923617's avatar
    AshleySt_923617
    SMARTY Pioneer
    03-01-2025

    Thanks MSF 

    I’ve had a look into this and have a 2024 iPhone which is VoLTE compatible. Have also verified the correct settings in relation to this as advised on a couple of Australian network sites.

    Grrrrrrr so looks like it might be something else

    • MSF's avatar
      MSF
      SMARTY Guru
      03-01-2025

      AshleySt_923617  All very frustrating, I'm sure.

      Is it worth taking the sim out and giving it a gentle clean before replacing? Wondering whether any possibility that it has become fractionally dislodged during travel?

      Also, can you try a sim from someone else to verify that the phone is 100%?

      • AshleySt_923617's avatar
        AshleySt_923617
        SMARTY Pioneer
        03-01-2025

        Thanks MSF - yep had tried that previously. Interestingly on a quick trip back to the UK last week all worked fine so thinking it must be a localised Australia thing. I’ll reach out to Smarty support in the meantime. Thanks again for your advice!

  • IainMui_1917697's avatar
    IainMui_1917697
    SMARTY Maverick
    02-02-2025

    I also have exact same issue, we have 3 SIMs in Sydney and none are working. All SOS only with 3 different iPhones. Did anyone manage to resolve this? 

    • MSF's avatar
      MSF
      SMARTY Guru
      02-02-2025

      IainMui_1917697  There is a whole complex issue going on in Australia since 3G was turned off on most networks. It is a legal issue and means that many phones will not work there (including Australian phones!)

      The other important issue is to try all networks via a manual network selection rather than automatic network selection. (You may be on a network that has no signal locally)

      Finally, did you set APN to mob.asm.net ?

      • IainMui_1917697's avatar
        IainMui_1917697
        SMARTY Maverick
        02-02-2025

        Yes done all the steps. All the networks are v strong locally, I’m in Sydney CBD. I think this is something Smarty needs to address asap, as it unfair to customer who have no knowledge that their services won’t work in Australia. I am locked out of many services that require 2FA as I fully expected to be able to receive calls or a SMS in Sydney or I would have changed providers before I left. Smarty support seem to be unaware and had me resetting phone and all sorts, then I realised my whole family had same issues with Smarty SIMs.

  • IainMui_1917697's avatar
    IainMui_1917697
    SMARTY Maverick
    02-02-2025

    I’m using dual sim so it works fine with other sim. I have an iPhone 15 max. If there was a way to trasnsfer network I would do this. 
    This won’t exactly be an uncommon issue, thousands travel to Australia each week and will have same issue, so I think Smarty needs some information on FAQs with a solution. 

    • MSF's avatar
      MSF
      SMARTY Guru
      02-02-2025

      IainMui_1917697 I have spent a considerable amount of time trying to find info ANYWHERE, so this is not just down to Smarty. Three are no better - I have an Esim of theirs as it allows Australian roaming in theory at any rate. Just looking at an Esim from Roamless as it appears to operate on Australian networks.

      I agree this is all very confusing, but I feel that the accountability/blame lies squarely with the Australian Telecoms ministry rather than our UK networks, who probably have not much more info than we can find.

       

  • EH's avatar
    EH
    SMARTY Rookie
    04-02-2025

    I am having the same issue, despite Smarty saying if you buy an out of plan add on you would be able to receive texts from the UK. What can we do in this situation? I urgently need to receive SMS's from my UK bank account to be able to do my job. 

    • MSF's avatar
      MSF
      SMARTY Guru
      04-02-2025

      EH  As this seems to be down to the Australian Government's decisions, I'm not sure there is much you can do. You could perhaps try buying local sim in Australia and hope that your phone is compatible - you would then need to ensure that you could receive international texts (from your bank) and also tell the bank of your new number. 

      Does your bank use short code sms? This could be another issue - not sure if it would work on an international scale.

  • ShaneOMZ's avatar
    ShaneOMZ
    SMARTY Maverick
    06-02-2025

    As I have said on most of the other threads covering this topic, my wife has an identical phone to me; all relevant settings are the same. Her UK sim is O2, mine is Smarty. Her UK sim works fine, mine doesn't. This to me makes it clear this is a Smarty issue rather than a phone issue. The fact that 3 offer Australian roaming on their UK sims isn't really relevant, as they're undoubtedly not selling their top-of-the-line service to Smarty.

    Smarty need to pull their finger out and sort this out!

    • SmartyTrousers's avatar
      SmartyTrousers
      SMARTY Centurion
      06-02-2025

      ShaneOMZ I take it you've tried your Smarty SIM in your wife's phone there, and with the APN set to mob.asm.net on your wife's phone? And you have additional credit added to your Smarty account?

  • ShaneOMZ's avatar
    ShaneOMZ
    SMARTY Maverick
    06-02-2025

    I've certainly got enough out of plan credit on my smarty sim.

    Unfortunately, while I agree that what you suggest would definitively prove whether the issue is down to Smarty or not, there are too many other settings other than mob.asm.net that would need changing for me to risk doing what you suggest on her 'phone.

    • SmartyTrousers's avatar
      SmartyTrousers
      SMARTY Centurion
      06-02-2025

      ShaneOMZ Ok, that's your choice, but if you're not willing to do that then it goes without saying that you don't really have any evidence that this is actually a Smarty issue.

      By all means come back and tell Smarty to pull their finger out if you do end up doing that test and confirming your suspicions.

      By the way, I'm an iPhone user myself, and I'm pretty sure changing the APN setting for the Smarty SIM in your wife's phone wouldn't change the APN setting for her O2 SIM.