Cell phone talk, text, data differences.
 

My understanding is that all cell phone technologies use radio waves. So, a cell tower will handle talk, text and data. My wife has talk, text, data; including long distance service. I only have talk (no long distance) & text to avoid the cost of data on my phone.
Presently we are in the US (from Canada). She cannot receive a phone call. She can make a call but it will take two or more tries. We can see the roaming network changing on her phone. However, there is no problem sending texts or using the data to surf the web.
My phone has no problem sending or receiving phone calls. Roaming network is steady.
What gives?

Go to the apple store to have it looked at, they can also run a diagnostic on the phone there.

Excuse me, I should have mentioned they are Android phones, not apple.

Contact your carrier
 

You need to contact your
cell phone carrier or cell
phone service provider to
see what your coverage is
exactly outside of your
home service area for
each phone.



Jim

Well then yiur screwed. That’s why you buy apple. You don’t get that and you get great support.

There are multiple types of cell networks, especially in the US.

If you don't have a world phone it may have challenges connecting to a different network or latency at the carrier level.

You could try restarting the device or purchasing an eSim card if your phone supports it. Then it can talk natively to the different networks and likely be cheaper when you travel as it is usually a flat rate.

Thanks to those who responded positively.

There are different types of online sim cards, and they come with different features. Some support full functionality (calls + sms + data), others are data/sms only, and some have limited voice roaming.

First thing I’d do is check with your provider and clarify the exact details of your plan, especially voice roaming support in the USA

For example, in catalogs like sms-activate you can see that different providers offer different options: some include calls, some only SMS reception, etc. So it really depends on how your sim is configured.

Now the bots are posting on 2+ year old threads... took 1 minute to open this & 2 minutes to post a reply.... :(