Forum Discussion
International roaming / India - has issues
I have international roaming available as part of plan, but phone won’t connect to internet. I am currently in a city called Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India. The phone connects to a strong signal from Vodafone - India (and shows all bars are up on signal anywhere in city).
But, when i try to start up chrome browser, it immediately shows “NO INTERNET”. Has been consistently doing it for past few days that i have been here. The obvious checks (Mobile data, Data roaming, Network operator etc) have all been checked. So, i am starting to think that vodafone india is throttling or cheating Tmobile on their end of the deal.
If not, how can tmobile give me data service here ? I need to get this working soon, since i will be india for a while…..currently, i am getting by only on wifi connects.
- HuginnmuninnNewbie Caller
I have been a T-Mobile ONE plan user since 2017. I have successfully used international roaming in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Peru, Switzerland and the UK. As recently as 2019, I used international roaming in India with the IDEA network.
I am in India right now in a not-small-at-all city called Pune. More people live here than in Michigan. Here, I have been getting Vodafone IDEA (Vi) India Talk and Text network but no data at all. It is such a struggle being abroad and not even being able to use Uber or Maps or Translate. I am not a heavy user at all so 2G speeds work very well for me as long as I can I can travel independently and safely. However with the current situation, that’s just not possible. I have had to go and buy a different Indian SIM card for my visit.My colleagues have told me that IDEA was taken over by Vodafone India in September 2020. Maybe this change is affecting our ability to use International Roaming Data on our T-Mobile plans.
- Terp1natorNewbie Caller
I am facing the same issue in Bhopal, India. My phone shows full bars but intermittent data connection. This is a complete farce. This was one of the main reasons and I switched to T-Mobile from AT&T and selected Magenta Max. This is not fair to the customer. I am okay with having 2G data speeds as long as it is consistent and I don’t lose data. But this is a joke what I am experiencing. T-Mobile can not make the claims of unlimited 2G data on international roaming if the service is not reliable at all.
- drnewcombFiber Fanatic
When you complain, be sure to mention that T-Mobile’s roaming maps show service in Pune and that they should either fix the roaming or the map.
- ninjitNewbie Caller
I just landed in India a week ago and have been experiencing the same problems described by others here.
Phone shows LTE/4G full bars, and “Connected” in network status, but there is an exclamation point over the indicator icon, and all apps claim no internet available.
However, while trying different apps, I opened my work VPN (Cisco) and it gave a more detailed error message than just “no internet”, it said “DNS name lookup failed”.
Unfortunately, I did not have a terminal/ping utility on my phone, but using hotspot I was able to connect my laptop and behold, there was internet, but no name resolution
ping/nslookup google.com
failsping 8.8.8.8
worked fineWith that info, I changed the settings on my laptop to use google’s dns server (8.8.8.8) and had internet working at that point, albeit just via hotspot.
I could not see a way to force use of a specific DNS server on my phone (Pixel, android 12) for mobile data, just in manual wifi settings.
The private DNS feature only accepts a hostname, not an IP address, and so that too fails, since it can’t look up the new server to switch to in the first place… a bit of a silly limitation, I think.Before India, I had been in Japan and Singapore, and had no issues with roaming at all.
So it seems that T-mobile’s own roaming data settings may have a DNS server that is often blocked within India for some reason.Hopefully this helps some of you too, and maybe T-mobile can help fix this soon.
- krsreeNewbie Caller
@BoulderColorado Thank you for these suggestions. Strangely, when I travelled to other cities like Trichy and small towns on the way, I was getting the LTE speed. After coming back I was getting LTE speed in some parts of Coimbatore and almost dead on other areas. Vi may not be too stable or strong in Coimbatore perhaps.
- Rthomas79Newbie Caller
RESOLVED: Intl’l roaming add-on but no data (India)
this happens when the roaming partner selection is automatic and phone ends up selecting a partner that cannot extend roaming. I tried sim poping, restart phone, toggle airplane mode and each time phone selects Vi india while i am in Amrtisar. I found this because my wife’s phone was somehow staying on the right one but mine did not. So, after i forced my phone on airtel with steps below, i got internet !! T-Mobile won’t have roaming with every small operator in India or Internationally.
anyway an easy fix is —
On the phone goto:
Step1: Cellular data > Network selection : change from automatic to manual selection (or disable auto)
Step2: Wait for list of roaming operator's to populate
Step3: select a national operator in your area (airtel worked for me in Amritsar for example)
You may need to restart phone after step3 And recheck step3 to make sure correct operator is actually selected. Once set it should remain until next restart or airplane mode.
Enjoy Magenta !
- drnewcombFiber Fanatic
Problems when roaming in India are just par for the course. Do you have a PING utility on your phone? Try PINGing the numeric address “8.8.8.8” to see what happens.
There would be no advantage to Vodafone in not connecting your data.
Call International support at +1-505-998-3793 (free from your T-Mobile phone)
https://www.t-mobile.com/support/coverage/international-roaming-checklist
- nsamuelNewbie Caller
After 4 weeks in India, this problem remains unsolved. Numerous calls to tech support resulted only in apologies and un-diagnosed status. Strangely, when i moved to a big city (called Bangalore), i experienced no issues on the first day, same “no data connection” on second day, and then it started working fine later part of 2nd day. It was working in Delhi during my initial landing. But, the city of Coimbatore consistently had “no data connection” for 3 weeks. Talked to local partner, and they tried to connect the phone directly to their APN. No luck. T-mobile just said “tower issue” and left it at that. This would be another blow to account, since I will have to visit this city of Coimbatore often in future and I would require connection (as a backup). It maybe was bumped upto Engineering (with a trouble ticket assigned), but no call or email from them. They simply overwhelmed after the recent security breach.
What can i do to get this resolved ?
- senNetwork Novice
I have the same stupid issue in a place called Trichy and it’s the same answer - Tower problem. It’s pathetic and I feel, TMobile has to do something. On call with Tmobile.
- nsamuelNewbie Caller
6 hours phone call and 1 month later, this problem is not yet solved. I travelled to a bigger city (Bangalore) and 4G data worked there fine. When i travel back to Coimbatore, my data connection does not happen (even though signal is strong and i am at center of city). The phone i have is a LG Q7+ (T mobile) running Android 9 software version Q610TA20g,
Wonder if people who have a Samsung also have this issue in Indian small towns. Last time i travelled to India, (2 years ago) this was not an issue.
Related Content
- 2 years ago
- 2 years ago
- 11 months ago
- 10 months ago