Phone won't automatically roam to Mexican carrier
bnewall1
Enthusiast - Level 2

Greetings,

I've been having a problem for quite some time now, and I wonder if anyone else has run into this.  We have a plan with multiple lines.  I am on the 5G Get More Unlimited plan, and my wife and mother-in-law are on 5G Start Unlimited. We live in San Diego, close to the Mexican border. They have family across the border, and any time we go over, their phones connect to one of the Mexican providers (usually Telcel or Movistar) with no problem.  Mine, however, refuses to.  My phone is a Galaxy S22 Ultra, but I've had the same problem with my last several phones -- Galaxy Note10+, LG V50, LG V40, Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy Note 4... My wife's phone is an iPhone 12 Pro Max, and her previous XR and 6 Plus never had issues.  My mother-in-law's phone is a Galaxy A71, and the previous one was a J3... no problem.  It's only mine that has trouble, and it's been across multiple devices.

The only way I can get my phone to connect is to go to the Connection settings, Network Operators, turn off "Automatically Select," and then choose one of the Mexican carriers manually.  And even then, sometimes it takes 2 or 3 tries to get it to register.  The last time I went, I couldn't get it to connect to Telcel, but it connected to Movistar.  The time before that, it connected to Telcel, but it took 2 tries.  But I shouldn't have to do that; it should go automatically as soon as it's out of Verizon's range.

The really odd thing is that I had the SAME problem with T-Mobile, again only on MY line, before we switched back to Verizon in 2019.  I ported my number over from T-Mobile.  (My number originated as a Sprint number in 2001, then went to Cingular before it was AT&T, then Verizon, then T-Mobile in 2015, then back to Verizon.)  I'm stumped, and Verizon support has been unable to help. They've tried a number of things, but to no avail.  Needless to say, I'm a bit frustrated.

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks in advance!

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Re: Phone won't automatically roam to Mexican carrier
vzw_customer_support
Customer Service Rep

bnewall1,

 

We're sorry to hear about the issues you are having with your phone being able to properly connect to the international network. We know the importance of being able to use your phone even when you travel internationally. What does your phone display when it is unable to connect?

-Mark

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Re: Phone won't automatically roam to Mexican carrier
bnewall1
Enthusiast - Level 2

Once my phone loses the Verizon signal, it simply shows the symbol at the top indicating that it has no service. When I swipe down, I see "Emergency calls only."  The last 2 times that happened, I let it stay that way until I arrived where I was going, which took about 20 minutes.

When I went to the Connection settings and tried to manually connect it to one of the Mexican carriers, this is what happened:

First trip there: I got the list of carriers and tapped on "TELCEL."  It said "Failed to register."  I tapped again, and then it said "Registered on network" and I got 4G LTE service.

Second trip there: I tapped on "TELCEL" and it said "Registered on network" but did NOT give me the LTE symbol; it still said "Emergency calls only."  Tried a second time on TELCEL, same thing.  Then, I tried again, but chose "Movistar" instead of "TELCEL," it said "Registered on network," and I got the 4G LTE symbol and had service.

Also, I should note: Coming back, the phone had no problem reconnecting back to Verizon.  It was only going over to Mexico that gave me difficulties.

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Re: Phone won't automatically roam to Mexican carrier
vzw_customer_support
Customer Service Rep

bnewall1, thanks for the update. I will be sending you a Private Note to assist further.

-Mark

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