No Internet, 3g/4g Mobile Data? Try This, Problem Solved

[#1]

I was unable to get Internet via Mobile Data, 4g or 3g using my Plusnet Sim Card. After phoning Plusnet several times and getting nowhere I was on the point of binning it and going elsewhere but found and fixed it myself. Hopefully the following will help others who are having the same problem and getting nowhere when they ring Plusnet.

Brief background. I had an Alcatel Android Phone with a Plusnet Sim Card but was only able to get 3g on it. So I got myself a Samsung A5 to replace it as this has 4g capability. You would think it would be a simple task of just taking the Sim Card out of the Alcatel and putting it in the Samsung A5, switch it on and off you go. Sadly not. I could make Calls and send Texts but no Mobile Data.

Please read all the Post as what Plusnet Suggested didn’t work.

So I rang Plusnet and they told me that the APN Settings would need changing. So I went into APN and these are the settings that Plusnet tell you to put in:

Name: ee internet

APN: everywhere

Username: eesecure

Password: secure.

MMS Proxy: 149.254.201.135

MMS Port: 8080

Authentication Type: PAP

APN Type: internet+MMS

I put these in but still no Mobile Data. Next I’m told that the Sim Card must have gone faulty and they will send out a New Sim. Two days later this arrives.

I put the New Sim in the Samsung A5 and switch it on and as instructed in the letter with it I phone Plusnet to activate the Sim. I’m told it will take between 20 minutes and 2 hours to work. So 3 hours later I go back to it and again all I can do is make calls and send Texts, No Mobile Data! So I put in all the above in the APN Settings and still no Mobile Data.

Now bare in mind that Plusnet use the EE Network. So my wifes phone is a Samsung S7 and is on EE, I take her Sim Card out and put it in the Samsung S5 and everything works including the 4g. My Daughter has an A6 on Virgin (who also use the EE Network), puts her Sim Card in the A5 and again everything works including 4g. So we know it’s not the phone.

So I ring Plusnet again, he goes through all the settings above to double check I’ve done it right but still no Mobile Data. Now I’m told it must be a problem with the phone so they can’t help me any further. No it’s Not because I’ve tried an EE and Virgin Sim in it and it works perfectly, it must be something to do with Plusnet, but no they say it’s a fault with the phone. At this point I give up and start looking at EE and Virgin Deals to get a Sim.

I don’t know what made me do this but I put the Plusnet Sim in my Daughters A6 and it worked perfectly and I got 4g Mobile Data. This is Bizarre, why won’t the Plusnet Sim work in the Samsung A5 but will work in the A6? So whilst it was in the A6 I went in to the APN Settings and low and behold they are different to the ones above that Plusnet were telling me to put in so I write these down.

So I put the Plusnet Sim back in the Samsung A5 and again I can still only make Calls and Send Texts, still no Mobile Data. So this time I go in to APN and put in the settings I had copied, these are as follows (notice some are different to the ones above and 2 are left blank):

Name: everywhere

APN: everywhere

Username: eesecure

Password: secure.

MMS Proxy: (leave blank)

MMS Port: (leave blank)

Authentication Type: PAP

APN Type: default

So I type in the above and guess what? The Mobile Data starts working although I’m only getting 3g instead of 4g but at least I’ve got Internet, 3g Mobile Data. But it gets more interesting.

Elsewhere on this Forum I read a post from someone who was only getting 3g instead of 4g and it rectified itself when he left his home area and went elsewhere, it then changed from 3g to 4g, so I decided to try this. Went to a Garden Centre about 5 Miles away and bought my gardening bits then looked at the phone, hooray, I’ve now got 4g!

I gets home and leaves it several hours to check I still had 4g and yes I did, tried turning it on/off a couple of times and I still get 4g, turned it off over night and again got 4g in the Morning. So everything is working as it should be.

As an experiment I decided to go back in APN Setting and try the settings Plusnet gave me and again the Mobile Data stopped working. Put the APN settings I wrote down above back in and again it starts working but once again only on 3g. So I again had to drive out of the Area for a while for the signal to rectify itself to 4g and come back home where it continues to stay on 4g. It’s totally bizarre that I only live quarter of a mile from the mast yet it initially only picks up 3g and you have to drive miles away for it to rectify itself to 4g then you can come back. Its worth noting that when I put my Wife’s EE and Virgin Sim Cards in it picked up 4g straight away so clearly this anomaly has nothing to do with the phone and something to do with Plusnets Sim Card.

Phoning Plusnet was a waste of time as they are not Tech People and just people in a call centre following a Troubleshooting script, if its not fixed via their script the only option they have is to blame your phone. In this instance it wasn’t my phone at all, the APN Settings they were giving me were wrong and then you can only get 3g instead of 4g unless you drive miles away so their system can rectify itself. So if you cant get Internet or any Mobile Data try putting these APN Settings in:

Name: everywhere

APN: everywhere

Username: eesecure

Password: secure.

MMS Proxy: (leave blank)

MMS Port: (leave blank)

Authentication Type: PAP

APN Type: default

I will be curious to hear if this has helped anyone else with a similar problem. Oh and Plusnet, if you are reading this it might be worth sticking this solution in your Data Bank so once your Call Centre People have exhausted the script they can try this solution before condemning the callers phone as the culprit.

Moderator's note by Mike (Mav): A duplicate post was released from the Spam Filter and subsequently removed.

[#2]

I would think the APN type is the key setting to make it work.
If you could add the MMS settings back in from what Plusnet said but set the APN type to “default + mms” and see if it works or not?

[#3]

Yes, it worked,thanks.  Lost my mobile data on returning from the Isle of Man (where I had other phone problems).  I've now got it back.  Thanks

[#4]

Glad to hear it worked for you as well

[#5]

Thank you so much for this very detailed and helpful post.   I too had such hassle changing over from my old provider and jumped through so many hoops getting one code after another for keeping my old number then unlocking my phone, only to find I could use the phone and text but got no mobile data.   Many calls to Plusnet were met with disinterest or downright hostility.   After answering so many security questions that I could have got access to the inner vaults at the Bank of England I was asked for the make of my phone.   I said Vodafone.   ("No, I asked you for your phone make and model not your provider".)  Yes, actually my phone is a Vodafone.  ( "Vodafone don't make phones, that's your provider." )  Well I'm holding a phone they made in my hand, its a Vodafone Smart N7.   Silence from them then "Well it must be your phone thats at fault."    They said they would send me a new SIM card but that never arrived.  Instead I've Googled and found your wonderful post which I followed and hey presto - I now have 4g mobile data.    Only took a week to achieve this - I had been assured before I switched providers that it would be quick, simple and straightforward - NOT!    Mucha appreciated - good on you for persevering with this, lesser mortals would have lost the will to live before discovering the answer.  Well done you!.

[#6]

Glad to hear it worked for you as well. Its a pity Plusnet don't give this as a solution when they have tried other things

[#7]

Glad your problem is fixed even if it was a DIY job but I had a similar strange thing happen on my phone the other day.

The phone is dual 4G SIM, SIM 1 is Plusnet and SIM 2 is o2 Classic and two weeks ago my local EE/3 shared mast went off air (still off now) so my 4G went from a needle bending 5 bars down to 1 bar if I’m lucky and data speed going 30 Mb download down to 1 if I’m lucky so in the setting I change the preference to 3G only for the Plusnet SIM.

So now the phone shows Plusnet 3G and o2 4G but the speeds were no better so being a waste of time I went to change the preference back to 4G but the setting had change from 3G or 4G to 3G only so the phone would not go back to 4G.

I tried all the thing you have tried, turn off, waiting, turning on, mucking around with APN settings and nothing worked but to check it wasn’t the phones SIM carrier broken I swapped the SIM around and but it was still the same with 4G o2 but 3G Plusnet.

As Plusnet is my primary SIM I swapped them back so Plusnet is in number one SIM slot and when I checked the preference setting again it gave me the option of 4G, 3G or 2G so was abled to select 4G again.

Strange going on and I hope I don’t have to touch these setting again as they seem a bit iffy on Plusnet for some reason but who knows the local mast has be off a fortnight now so might be fixed sometime in the coming months.

[#8]

@ChrisAtBristol
That problem is to do with dual SIM phones, only allowing one SIM at a time to have a 4G connection whereas the other is 3G at most.

To switch to 4G on a SIM you have to set the other to 3G first, then the 4G option becomes available.

[#9]

@RPMozley I can perhaps understand that might be the case with a Dual Sim Phone but my Samsung A5 is a Single Sim. I'm just surprised that Plusnet don't give you several options to try when you phone them rather than the single option then blame your phone for the fault

[#10]

@smokie1010 My post was simply only for @ChrisAtBristol for their specific problem as it does not relate to the problem you encountered.

[#11]

I also had this problem, Thank you so much for this very detailed and helpful post!

[#12]

@Jaimeteddy You're welcome, glad it helped you. Its a shame Plusnet don't provide this information when you phone them.

[#13]

Thanks for your information. Recently I was busy with a new job, so I'm currently back in the forum.

[#14]

Hi

I was having data roaming issues in Austria. I followed all the instructions given to me over the course of 3 calls to PlusNet support. They had no more ideas and it looked like it was the handset because the data worked fine when the SIM was put in an alternative phone.

I decided to try one more thing before giving up and copied the existing default APN settings to a new entry. I then edited the "Bearer" section and clicked on all of the available options. Data then started working.

I think the problem may limited to phones running AndroidOne. Mine is a Nokia 6.1.

Good luck, I know how frustrating it is not to have your phone working properly abroad when you want to use it for all the stuff you'd use it for at home and more.

Ed

[#15]

Thank you for this very helpful information.

I recently started using my first ever smartphone and couldn't get it connected to mobile data, it would only connect to the internet via my home wifi (so no internet when away from home). As a newbie, I thought I was doing something wrong so didn't contact Plusnet and asked various friends for advice instead but they couldn't help and just said that connecting to mobile data was very easy.

In desperation, I asked my nephew (36 years younger than me) to see if he could fix the problem for me, with the offer of a pub lunch if he was successful. When he couldn't work out what was wrong, he went onto google and found your solution which worked immediately, and took my phone straight to 4g (no messing about with 3g first). So he got his pub lunch and I have a phone that connects to mobile data.

This appears to be an issue that is unique to Plusnet, and it makes me wonder what on earth they've done to make connecting to mobile data so difficult!