International Plan Not Working in France

[UPV]

Hello:  I moved to France for six months and bought the monthly international plan to use on my iPhone XS Max.  For the first couple of months the data roaming usually worked OK, but for the past month it has almost never worked at all, though oddly it suddenly worked for about two days last week before quitting again.  I can access WiFi with the phone just fine.  It's the roaming that won't work.  Cellular roaming is definitely turned on.  I have powered down and restarted the phone multiple times.  The phone shows no needed updates.  Can anyone offer advice?  I'm in a large city in the south of France, not out in the middle of nowhere.  I'm paying a lot of money for data roaming and feeling very very frustrated by the situation.  Thanks for any advice you can offer!

[Andrew1000]

I’m not seeing a reply from Verizon.. Same problem, same location.  I guess our concerns aren’t valid enough??

[Dan_VZ · Accepted solution]

Verizon is aware of an international third-party communications provider having issues with voice and data connections with U.S. based customers traveling overseas. They are actively working on fixing these issues.

We recommend using Wi-Fi when available. If you had previously activated Wi-Fi Calling back in the United States, that feature can be used as well in the meantime: https://www.verizon.com/support/wifi-calling-faqs/

We appreciate your patience and understanding, and thank you for using Community Forums to lift your feedback and experiences.

[klgilgenast]

Has this been resolved? I paid for the International Plan and I am currently in Paris with no connection or access to data whatsoever.

[UPV]

I found a solution that worked for me.  My partner passed the tip along from a clerk at a Verizon store he visited in the US to help me troubleshoot.

Go to Settings on your phone, and then General, and then Transfer or Reset iPhone. 

Hit Reset and then Reset Network Settings.

Enter your passcode and then again hit Reset Network Settings.  Let the phone do its thing.  It won't take long.  Don't panic.  It won't erase your whole phone or anything dire like that.

I think the phone  powers down and you'll need to turn it back on yourself.

Go back to Settings and then Cellular.  Under Cellular Data Options, turn Roaming back on, as it will get turned off during the reset.

I don't know if this fix will work for you, but it did for me.  The downside is that your phone will lose memory of any wifi networks to which it has been connected, so you'll have to reenter the passwords next time you want to log onto Wifi anywhere.  But for me the hassle was worth it to have roaming data when out and about.

Also, if it does work for you, be aware that you might need to do it more than once, esp. if you log onto a Wifi network in, say, your hotel.   But usually I would go several weeks at a time with my phone working before it would glitch and I'd have to do the reset process again.

Good luck.

[Troy4mcfadd3n]

Same exact issue and also in Paris. Wife's phone on Verizon has no issue. 

[JBCali69]

Happening to my daughter who ‘s in Paris now using a fully updated iPhone 15. Worked fine in London but now crapped out in Paris. Apparently Verizon still hasn’t fixed this known issue even though an entire year has passed. So happy I’m paying a fortune for sub-par service.  Haven’t tried UPV’s suggestion but hopeful (fingers crossed) viable workaround.  

[Jad4guit]

We recently had the same problem with the Verizon international plan. It did not work in France for the newer Iphone 15.  It worked for my iPhone 13:  

[HLH2]

This is not a reasonable solution.   What are we supposed to do when we cannot use wifi calling. Also I have no internet access when I am not on wifi.  I'm essentially traveling with no phone, even though I paid $100 for the monthly international plan. 

[MNscot]

Very disappointed that Verizon has not fixed this.  Spent an hour with the help line with no success.

[MNscot]

I found another solution when I was having trouble in Paris, France and then again in Chamonix.  I was having the same problem of being connected to a cellular network but not with 4G/5G data.  I found that you can go into the settings for your phone and manually select a different carrier like you can connect to a different WiFi network.  The solution I found was for an Apple phone but I have an Android.  I figured Android has similar settings.  You can Google how to find them for your specific phone.  Below is what it looked like on my Samsung phone.  Turn off the "Select Automatically" and try another network in the list.  It worked like a charm for me.

[derekashmore]

I'm in France now. Both me and my companion have the same issue with service drops. "Sometimes", turning airplane mode on and then off seems to fix it. Not a 100% solution. Verizon needs to fix this 

[JBCali69]

[reposting at bottom of thread]. Happening to my daughter who ‘s in Paris now using a fully updated iPhone 15. Worked fine in London but now crapped out in Paris. Apparently Verizon still hasn’t fixed this known issue even though an entire year has passed. So happy I’m paying a fortune for sub-par service.  Haven’t tried UPV’s suggestion but hopeful (fingers crossed) viable workaround.  Did try toggling Airplane Mode on/off but sadly didn’t help.  

[bh123456]

Same. My daughter is in Lyon and she can only use WIFI. We have the International plan and already called Verizon, yet they said it should be working. We get good coverage when in Canada, so was expecting to have decent coverage in France. Frustrating that if there was an emergency, she can't call us.

[vzw_customer_support]

Hi bh123456, thanks for bringing this to our attention. We're going to send you a private note to assist further. Please engage with us there. -Red