No Signal In The USA

[slainesco]

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE HELP

Good morning

i have been on holiday in the states since tueday and i still cant get my phone to work

I have a Blackberry Curve and i pay £10 per month for it.

When i turn my phone on all i get is no signal and the word SOS in top right

I have tried going into

Options - mobile network turning on and off and back on data services and while roaming.

Also the mobile network it has on is T-Mobile ?

Network selection is set to automatic aswell

is there anything i can do as i am waiting on some important texts

thanks

Slaine Sco

[Kymmy]

SOS I presume means Emergency calls only.. If so then it's found a network but the network might not be on the roaming list.. You are talking about a country that has a lot of small mobile phone networks and not all of them will have a roaming agreement with all companies.. Or your roaming isn't enabled on the account (

Try scanning networks manually then trying the other networks it finds..

[Stephen]

Before you left the UK did you contact VM to make sure the international call barring was removed and enabled for international roaming?

[slainesco]

ive switched on while roaming on mobile network options and switched to AT&T but still nothing
If i have data services on and while roaming i take it i will get hit with big charges for accessing email etc if i ever manage to get a signal

thanks so much for your help

---------- Post added at 13:18 ---------- Previous post was at 13:17 ----------

Originally Posted by Stephen

Before you left the UK did you contact VM to make sure the international call barring was removed and enabled for international roaming?

erm whoops

is there anyway i can do it from here without costing me a fortune

thanks

[Stephen]

Not too sure. You need to be able to call customer services, it can sometimes take a day or two before it activates.

[slainesco]

ok thanks all

i set up an online account for my mobile with virgin and emailed them the issues
so hopefully they can sort something out

slaine

---------- Post added at 13:57 ---------- Previous post was at 13:26 ----------

or does anoyone think someone on here who works for virgin could help me

[Waldo Pepper]

I have used VM in DC, Virginia & Nevada without problems in the past. I think it roamed with Verizon but cannot remember.

However I am going back to mid 2005 when I was last there but I do remember you had to be a pay montlhy customer and inform them you would need International roaming enabled.

You also at the time needed a phone that could roam on GSM 1900.

As for the SOS, this used to be the default state when no network was available but that did not mean you could actually make such a call.

[slainesco]

well i emailed virgin mobile 4 days ago and still havent heard anything back.
still the same with the phone
is there anyway i can check my texts via a virgin mobile website or that
cos i know you can send texts from pc's etc

thanks

slaine

[MartJ]

Best to give them a call, they take days to answer e-mails and they won't be able to solve your issue by e-mail. Need to find a landline in US to give them a call on if 789 does not work on you nobile.

Ideally you need to set overseas roaming before you leave especially if it is the first time you are taking you phone overseas as per advice on Virgin Mobile website and instructions given with phone.

My stepson had a similar problem in Bermuda last year and only got the issue resolved by calling virgin from another phone.

[Scary]

even if you get in touch with VM they cant do much they could add roaming to your account or remove international call barring but your sim has to be in the uk for it to activate properly, you could manualy search for a network from your phone just go to blackery's web site and search under manual network selection see if that helps.

bit of other advice hope you have turned your voicemail off as having it on while abroad can cost a fortune as you pay to recive the call, then for it to goto voicemail then for you to get the voicemail so one call can cost quite alot.

[slainesco]

thanks all

so there isnt a web site for vm that i can check my texts tho

---------- Post added at 12:43 ---------- Previous post was at 12:18 ----------

do you think these wee stalls you see at all the malls here with phone stuff and unlocking stuff could do anything like unlock the phone or somet

getting desperate lol

[MartJ]

Originally Posted by Scary

even if you get in touch with VM they cant do much they could add roaming to your account or remove international call barring but your sim has to be in the uk for it to activate properly.

Not sure that's right, forgot to activate my wife's phone a few years back when we were in Spain, called VM from my phone and they activated her phone within a couple of hours. They will only activate if you call them e-mails to them will not help as they need to be sure they are dealing with the Account Holder. Anyway the response time to e-mails I understand is 5 - 7 days, better off calling.

So I suggest again you find a landline and call them, the number is on Virgin Mobile's website.

[Scary]

it can work now and again MartJ, but they wont guarantee it unless your in the uk as they would be liable for any loss of income.