O2 roaming keeps 'losing' signal

jimbob_too

Because of my job I am often in France for weeks at a time. I have a 'French phone' (Leclerc mobile pay as you go) and a 'British phone' (O2 pay as you go) so that I can make cheaper phone calls within both countries, and so people can get a message to me on either number. Both phones are unlocked so could in theory take any SIM card.

Recently I've noticed that the British phone loses its signal when in France (i.e. no bars, and no French network displayed. It used to alternate between Orange France, SFR and Bougeytel). It is impossible to dial out or send text messages. What is curious though is that it still RECEIVES calls and text messages. I find this very peculiar behaviour, and would be interested to know if anyone has experienced this?

Other possibly important info:

1) both phones are cheap Nokia 1616 phones which otherwise operate fine (no power problems etc)

2) If I swap SIM cards between the French and British phone the same thing happens - whichever phone has the British SIM card loses its network (at least for outgoing calls) for hours at a time

3) This occurs in places where the French phone has 5 bars of signal and where I have previously received a good signal on the British phone. It happens in the middle of Paris, and at the airport - places where you would expect a good signal

4) The British phone is topped up with money every few weeks

thegoodman

Have you spoken to O2?
If I was you I will do that first

Jon_01

Its known that some network will log roamers off if they get close to capacity giving preference to their own customers. I doubt they'd ever admit to it, but it happens.

jimbob_too

Yes that's what I privately suspect (particularly in light of the EU regulations to cut overseas calling charges) - and if it is technically possible, they would probably log off the cheapskate PAYG customers first. I am planning to call customer services, but in order to best frame the conversation I'm interested to find out if anyone else has experienced this.

Jon_01

The guys in frontline CS won't know about this (I didn't when I worked the frontline, it only came up when I went further up the ladder).

And remember, you're not on O2 when you roam, you're on a partner network and they can run their network any way they please. They're not really answerable to O2 (or any other network) on how they operate. So I don't know how far you'll get calling O2 (but good luck)...

digp

i've found the opposite. i found it possible to get a signal and make a call on an o2 sim but on the local sim I could not make a call (I was roaming on the same network!)

reclusive46

digp wrote: »

i've found the opposite. i found it possible to get a signal and make a call on an o2 sim but on the local sim I could not make a call (I was roaming on the same network!)

What country was this in? I've found some networks around the world only let PAYG customers on that network use certain cells, where as pay monthly and roaming customers get full access.

jimbob_too

I've now started paying particular attention to when a network is available and noticed that today (Saturday), the British phone has a good signal (on Orange France) whereas, yesterday there was no network name displayed in exactly the same location for most of the day. Perhaps mobile traffic is lighter during the weekend?

I can see the logic why a foreign mobile provider might not link a foreigner roaming phone to their cell if it means they will be losing money by not linking up a domestic customer (particularly if the foreigner doesn't actually make many calls - I mainly use Skype when I have wifi :-) ). Is there a limit to the number of phones that can be linked up to a cell at any one time?

Do each of the French networks (SFR, Orange, Bouygues..) have independent control over what kind of roamers have access to each of their cells, or is their some kind of central body which 'matches' roaming phones to networks? Also is it technically possible for them to distinguish between different types of customer (i.e. PAYG, pay monthly, heavy data user etc..)? I don't think that O2 would be permitted to share my customer details with other companies (or maybe they can?) so it's not clear to me how they would be able to tell.

Jon_01

jimbob_too wrote: »

Do each of the French networks (SFR, Orange, Bouygues..) have independent control over what kind of roamers have access to each of their cells, or is their some kind of central body which 'matches' roaming phones to networks? Also is it technically possible for them to distinguish between different types of customer (i.e. PAYG, pay monthly, heavy data user etc..)? I don't think that O2 would be permitted to share my customer details with other companies (or maybe they can?) so it's not clear to me how they would be able to tell.

Each UK network (or any network from any country) will have a partner network (sometimes more than one) in each country.
The agreement they have between them will be unique to each.
The roaming network will tell the home network how much it wants for each element (minutes/texts/data).
Some will barter the costs, others will see roamer as a cash cow and charge a higher cost. Which is why some networks don't have a partner in some area's, they won't pay the price the other network demands. Most agreements are in force for 1 to 2 years and then renegotiated.

Contract runs on one system and payg runs on something called CAMEL. Which is very expensive to install and not all network have it, which it why in some area's you can't use payg at all.

At the end of every 24/48 hours period the roaming network sends the usage into to the home network using your phones IMEI, IMSI and phone number to work out which home network you're on.
The billing info follows days or weeks behind.

If you're a heavy user while roaming then the roaming network sends a 'high usage report' to your home network to alert them (the values on this depend on networks). The home network can then pass the usage or contact the customer and tell them (I used to have this job!).

That help ??

macman

Have you tried manually switching to the local network that appears to offer a better signal?

jimbob_too

At the end of every 24/48 hours period the roaming network sends the usage into to the home network using your phones IMEI, IMSI and phone number to work out which home network you're on.
The billing info follows days or weeks behind.

Right, so I can imagine a scenario where the foreign network notes the presence of a roaming phone which doesn't get used much (based on accumulated usage reports over a period of several weeks), and marks it as low priority. You're right, it'll be hard to get them to admit to it but that's interesting info, thanks!