Unable to roam onto 3 UK in certain areas

eth0_

I am a 3 Ireland PAYG customer.

Normally when I visit Northern Ireland or the UK, I can get on 3UK.

But this is generally only in cities. For example, when I visit a relative who lives in south Co. Down, the 3 UK network doesn't even show up when I do a manual network selection. 3 PAYG have no ancillary roaming agreements, so I am basically incommunicado!

The same thing happens when I visit a friend who lives in St Andrews, Scotland - a large town.

The weird thing is, my relative and my friend are both 3 UK customers, and they obviously have service in their home areas! However I cannot even see the 3 UK network!

It's as if 3 are blocking non-3UK customers from using their more rural cell towers, which is utterly disgraceful.

I rang the useless Indian "technical support" idiots and they kept telling me to manually select the network :rolleyes:

Anyone else have this problem or is it something wrong with my account?

Random

I would say it's more likely 3 UK have domestic roaming agreements with other UK carriers in these areas, must like Meteor have a domestic roaming agreement with Vodafone here.

3 IE and 3 UK are run as separate companys so any agreement with other UK networks would have to be ironed out between them and 3 IE. They obviously haven't done this.

I'm just basing this on what you've mentioned above.

eth0_

Nope, for Irish PAYG customers, the only network you can roam onto is 3UK. That's what it says on their page about roaming on their website.

I just don't understand how my phone can quite happily use, for example, 3UK in Belfast, but if I drive to Downpatrick, I cannot get any network coverage, despite the fact that there is full coverage there for 3UK. :-(

Random

eth0_ wrote: »

Nope, for Irish PAYG customers, the only network you can roam onto is 3UK. That's what it says on their page about roaming on their website.

I just don't understand how my phone can quite happily use, for example, 3UK in Belfast, but if I drive to Downpatrick, I cannot get any network coverage, despite the fact that there is full coverage there for 3UK. :-(

What I'm suggesting though is that this may not be 3UK coverage. They may be roaming on another UK network (and just showing 3UK on the screen) instead like Meteor do in Ireland. Have you checked into this? I haven't to be honest, it's just my theory.

eth0_

You could be right but even still if it's 3's service (albeit provided through another company), it should let me join the network

Random

eth0_ wrote: »

You could be right but even still if it's 3's service (albeit provided through another company), it should let me join the network

But 3 UK and 3 IE are run separately.

eth0_

random wrote: »

But 3 UK and 3 IE are run separately.

Have you read my posts? It works in populated areas like cities and large towns. I can get on 3UK in these places, my phone goes on to it automatically, I can text/make and receive calls/ use my data allowance.

It's only in some areas that my phone gets "no access to network" when I try to manually join 3UK, and on some occasions it can't even see 3UK when there is a person standing right beside me with a 3UK phone, who is on the 3UK network - not roaming onto Orange or O2. If 3UK is available to me when I do a manual search, I should be able to join the network!

3 Ireland and 3 UK are part of the same global 3 company. Yes they are run separately as in they pay tax to a different government but they have one CEO who looks after Ireland *and* the UK, and at the end of the day they are both part of 3 Hutchinson Whampoa.

3 PAYG customers can roam onto 3 sister networks (there is no other roaming agreement in the UK other than using 3UK). That's what it says on their roaming documentation. The fact is, this is patently not happening.

1huge1

While I can't speak for 3 payg when I'm in any part of the UK I usually roam on O2 UK when im in the countryside (and im 3 pay monthly)
Im also able to get t-mobile.

3UK have poor 3G coverage compared to 3 Ireland.

When you see these 3UK customers they are roaming on the O2 UK network even though it appears they are on 3UK.
Just like how right now my phone says im on 3 Ireland even though I know I'm roaming off the Vodafone Ireland network because im outside 3's 3G network.

It appears that 3 Ireland payg customers can only roam on 3's actual network in the UK (i.e their 3G network) and not use their roaming agreements with O2 UK.

Blaster99

I can't speak for PAYG, but as a contract customer I have used O2 UK and T Mobile UK without any problems. I would be extraordinarily surprised if PAYG customers are treated differently but you never know.

Walkman

Just to clear this up once and for all (because this has been debated in other threads also) 3pay customers only have access to 3uk not o2 or t-mobile (network websites are a great source of information if one bothered to look).

eth0_

1huge1 wrote: »

When you see these 3UK customers they are roaming on the O2 UK network even though it appears they are on 3UK.
Just like how right now my phone says im on 3 Ireland even though I know I'm roaming off the Vodafone Ireland network because im outside 3's 3G network.

I'm not sure that's right. I have a 3UK sim myself (which I had to buy because I got so sick of the network issues), and I put it in my phone today (i'm in Dublin) and it stayed on 3-Ireland but went onto Vodafone IE for a little while ('vodafone' came up on the screen)...so if it says 3 on your phone, you're definitely on the 3 network, not Vodafone.

That's another bone of contention for me, how come 3 UK PAYG customers can roam in Ireland on 3 Ireland and Vodafone, while Irish customers are unable to roam onto any other network?

I am emailing the CEO and CTO of Three UK and Ireland, will post here if/when I get a reply. It's really unacceptable.

Random

eth0_ wrote: »

I'm not sure that's right. I have a 3UK sim myself (which I had to buy because I got so sick of the network issues), and I put it in my phone today (i'm in Dublin) and it stayed on 3-Ireland but went onto Vodafone IE for a little while ('vodafone' came up on the screen)...so if it says 3 on your phone, you're definitely on the 3 network, not Vodafone.

If you're using a 3UK SIM card in the UK then 3UK stays on the screen even if they are using their domestic roaming agreement with O2/Vodafone/Whoeever.

If you're using a 3IE SIM card in IE then 3IE stays on the screen even if they are using their domestic roaming agreement with Vodafone.

If you use a 3UK SIM in Ireland then the network they are roaming on stays on the screen. They seem to be able to use various networks, this is just the setup that 3UK (as a separate company to 3IE) have.

If you use a 3IE SIM in the UK then the network you are roaming on stays on your screen. In this case you can only use 3UK network so you either see 3UK or nothing.

Hope this helps a bit more ?

culabula

There is little or no coverage of 3UK in Downpatrick, Strangford, Portaferry and surrounding areas.

3UK subs will be afforded access by Orange UK but they won't be be able to tell any difference from their screens. However, they will be told they are outside the 'video service area' should they attempt to make a video call or be denied access to the bulk of the content of Planet 3 save for a few text-based services.

3 IRL subs (PAYG and contract) will therefore find that the 3UK network is simply not on offer and as non-3UK subs, will not be permitted access to Orange UK even for voice calls.

Sam Vimes

eth0_ wrote: »

so if it says 3 on your phone, you're definitely on the 3 network, not Vodafone.

in the two and a half years that i had a 3 phone i never saw vodafone on the screen. quite often if i did a network search i'd see two 3 networks, one of which was actually vodafone. you never see vodafone on your screen on a 3 phone. as has been pointed out, the reason your 3 uk friends have coverage when you don't is that they're allowed roam onto t-mobile etc and you're not

eth0_ wrote: »

That's another bone of contention for me, how come 3 UK PAYG customers can roam in Ireland on 3 Ireland and Vodafone, while Irish customers are unable to roam onto any other network?

because 3 have crap roaming agreements. although we must be fair to them, they've only been around three years. we can't expect them to have ironed out roaming agreements with every country in the world, especially ones as far flung as northern ireland

Blaster99

The problem isn't roaming agreements, the problem is that 3 for some reason don't let PAYG users roam in the UK. It works just fine with a contract phone.

Sam Vimes

Blaster99 wrote: »

The problem isn't roaming agreements, the problem is that 3 for some reason don't let PAYG users roam in the UK. It works just fine with a contract phone.

which would mean that they never set up a roaming agreement for payg. there are a good few countries where they only have roaming for contract customers and that's because the romaing deal for contract is separate to the one for payg

culabula

eth0_ wrote: »

I'm not sure that's right. I have a 3UK sim myself (which I had to buy because I got so sick of the network issues), and I put it in my phone today (i'm in Dublin) and it stayed on 3-Ireland but went onto Vodafone IE for a little while ('vodafone' came up on the screen)...so if it says 3 on your phone, you're definitely on the 3 network, not Vodafone.

That's another bone of contention for me, how come 3 UK PAYG customers can roam in Ireland on 3 Ireland and Vodafone, while Irish customers are unable to roam onto any other network?

I am emailing the CEO and CTO of Three UK and Ireland, will post here if/when I get a reply. It's really unacceptable.

If you're roaming on Vodafone IE, you pay. You do not benefit from national roaming the way an Irish sub can.