Roaming - issues setting up Android

[seb11]

Hello Smarty community,

I am currently in Cambodia and my main phone decided to kick the bucket. I had a Smarty SIM in it. I've got a backup device with me (both phones purchased in the UK) so popped the SIM in, and I started the process of swapping over all my apps onto the backup phone. However I am finding that I can't receive OTP SMS messages to finish setting up my Whatsapp / Banking apps which is proving to be a major pain in the.... 

My first device happily received incoming UK text messages here after I followed the Roaming setup instructions from the tutorial on SMARTY website. I carried out the same steps on my backup phone but no bueno. I have a 3rd phone (US origin, SIM-unlocked) and this one won't receive UK text messages either, despite the Access Point Name setup. 

Do I need a roaming addon to passively receive texts? I've never had one before and I received OTPs on my now dead Pixel 4XL. I've done it for Amazon account recovery and some .gov verification codes just fine a couple of months ago.

I am attaching a screenshot of my Access Point Name config for troubleshooting. If anyone manages to solve this - you'd be an absolute lifesaver, since these text message OTPs are holding me hostage from resuming normal operations with banking apps on the new phone.

[JJP2]

Hi @seb11 Yes, you will need a roaming add on in Cambodia, but data will cost £1.00 per MB.

Make sure that roaming is also enabled in the settings of the phone you are now using.

If the phone you are now using has eSIM capability, I would suggest an eSIM provider like Sparks or Airalo to get data up and running. 

The Smarty price list for Cambodia and other useful info is here : 

https://smarty.co.uk/roaming/international/cambodia 

[seb11]

Let me try get an odd-on and see if I can receive a text message from the UK. This is literally the only scenario I need to make happen - for my day-to-day data needs I've got a local Cambodian SIM. It's just these pesky OTP messages for a few key apps registered on my SMARTY number . The strange thing is - I'm positive I never bought a roaming add-on before, and I received texts sent from the UK while abroad here (or perhaps I simply forgot!) I'll get back with the results.

EDIT

I bought a £5 out-of-plan addon and I'm still getting 'No Service - Emergency calls only' and zero bars on the network interface 😞 I tried turning Airplane mode on/off to give it a chance to reconnect - still no results.

[JJP2]

That is most likely down to the network coverage in Cambodia - Try manually selecting a network rather than letting your phone automatically select a network - Your phone could be latching on to a signal from a network with which Smarty doesn’t have a roaming agreement. EDIT - Just read you are getting zero bars of coverage.

What is your back up phone ? Just wondering if it’s an old 2G feature phone, that may not be helping.

[seb11]

I'm testing on 2 phones:

Cheapo backup Doogee S41 (no networks available at all/no bars)

Pixel 6 Pro (networks available/no bars?)

None of the networks connects - it either says Disconnected or No service

I'm in central location in the capital so connectivity shouldn't be an issue, especially that everything worked on Pixel 4XL just fine in the same spot.

Btw. Is this default configuration here correct? The SMARTY tutorial doesn't mention this segment so I left it 'as is'.

[JJP2]

Have you enabled roaming in the settings ?

From Smarty’s own help pages, here are advised settings for Android. Worth leaving the APN type blank as advised below, to see if that makes a difference. 

Never heard of a “Doogee” phone to be honest. Is it 4G or 5G capable ?

https://help.smarty.co.uk/en/articles/1155220-using-the-internet-after-you-ve-joined-smarty 

 

[seb11]

Thank you for all your input, it's really appreciated and it makes me hopeful that there's a solution on the horizon. 

Doogee is one of those cheap no-name Chinese android phones, it's a rugged brick with 6000mAh battery that I carried as a backup with me - while it is 4G capable, I'm disregarding it in this experiment. I'm doing everything on Pixel 6 Pro now just to be sure.

I rejigged that APN Type field 👍

I noticed that in my old texts I've got 20+ welcome messages from a network called SMART. These must've been instances when my old (now deceased) Pixel 4XL connected and registered on this network automatically. Maybe that's how I was able to receive text messages in the past (I checked and I've got a bunch of NHS appointment reminders, dentist stuff etc. during the period when I was already in Cambodia, so it must've worked in the past). I'll try to drive around and see if I can find that network on the Pixel 6.

[JJP2]

Whenever you are roaming abroad, the network you roam on sends you “welcome to x network” text messages, as does your home mobile network in your home country, which basically both tell you the costs of their services in the country you have just arrived in.

[seb11]

Yeah, I know that - I'm gonna treat it as an indicator that this particular network might be compatible with SMARTY'S roaming agreements, since the phone managed to connect to it in the past. I'll try to find and connect to it again and see if text messages are going through. Maybe it's not a config issue - maybe it's a network availability issue.

[JJP2]

Quite possibly - From googling, it appears that ‘ Smart ‘ is the best network, offering the most coverage, in Cambodia, with ‘ Metfone ‘ the next best.

[Strandloper]

@seb11,

That's a good way of hopefully ruling one of them out.  Hope you find out without too much difficulty with what you know