Plusnet mobile not working in South America

[#1]

15 days into 4 month backpacking tour and Samsung S7, cannot make or receive calls or roam in Brazil, Paraguay or Argentina. Wife's cheap Tesco mobile phone working fine. Umpteen emails to/from Plusnet support, followed ALL of their advice, still paying £10 per month and my Samsung remains useless. From this forum, I can see that others have experienced this Plusnet problem of not being able to make calls, receive calls or roam. Can anyone please advise me of any way of sorting this

[#2]

Perhaps buy a local SIM Card to get connectivity.

[#3]

Hi @dudedude, thanks for getting in touch.

I'm sorry to hear you're experiencing issues with your mobile service while abroad. Unfortunately there is no guarantee of service availability overseas. This is due to the fact we don't have full control of the signal strength, functionality with the masts and local network in that particular area. Having said that, there are some troubleshooting steps that you can try:

• Turn the handset off
• Remove the SIM card
• Leave it for a couple of minutes
• Replace the SIM card
• Turn the handset on

This will refresh the signal and attempt to re-establish a connection with the local network.

You may also find it helpful to manually connect to a network. If you've got an Android handset, following the steps below should provide you the available networks:

• From the home screen, tap and drag the Notifications bar downwards.
• Tap the Settings icon.
• Scroll to and tap More networks.
• Tap Mobile networks.
• Tap Network operators. If prompted tap OK.
• Tap the required network.

If possible, you could also try using your SIM in another handset that is unlocked to all networks.

Let us know how you get on.

[#4]

Thanks, you will have seen in my original post that I have exchanged numerous emails with Plusnet support and that I have followed ( unsuccessfully ) ALL of their advice, including that given again by yourself. Plusnet roaming information states that roamong is not available in Chile and Equador. This logically implies that it is avaiable in the other South American countries. Not only am I not able to roam ( thus far ) in Brazil, Argentina nor Paraguay, my Samsung s7 and £10 per month Plusnet sim has been unable to make calls or receive calls. Perhaos someone at Plusnet can explain why I am paying £10 per month?

[#5]

Hi dudedude,

You say "logically implies" service should be available in particular countries. I really don't think you can assume any such thing, sadly.

Having checked the PN roaming pages, I agree with you that there's no list of specifically "supported" countries - but I'm afraid I'd personally draw the conclusion that "If it works, it works. If it doesn't, it doesn't". If you're going to be in those countries regularly, I'd have to suggest having an account with one of the main networks or (as has already been suggested) using a local SIM while you're over there.

[#6]

thanks to both of you re. buying foreign sim, I will look into this. Luckily I brought my old £9 Tesco mobile PAYG phone with me, and have £10 credit remaining if I need to phone family. I am with Plusnet for house phone and internet, but it looks likely I will need to find a better U.K. mobile provider for future travels.