estnet

I am currently in Barcelona and the T Mobile Data Card is not connecting to one of their partners I get a message that I do not have a cellular data plan even though I have a strong signal and it says I have 4 bars and am connected to 3G. Is anybody else in Spain using tmobile sim card for data having a similar problem?

gfunkdave

There's nothing anyone can do here - your best bet is to call T-mobile's international support. The number is +1-505-998-3793, and it's free if you call from your T-mobile phone.

estnet

I have called them and they are working on it but they claim I am the only one. Just trying to see if others are using the Service successfully.

ScottC

T-Mobile data card? What kind of card is this? Do you have the make/model? If it is old, chances are its database of network operators may not be up to date, which would explain the bars, but no data.

Letitride3c

OP, are you on a postpaid or prepaid data plan, Simple Choice or an older plan? Have you successfully used it or roam in other Euro countires? As others noted, if it's an older Sim card, it might not be provisioned for (is the Sim card # begin with 8901 xxxx xxxx etc.) Are you tethering to another device ?

Do a quick check on your T-Mo data card's APN settings, if you can access it - make sure it's on fast.t-mobile.com. MCC - 310 and MNC - 260. APN protocol - if it's on IPv6, change it to IPv4 and APN roaming protocol should be on IPv4.

Power cycle - reboot the device & try again. The rest is, most likely, in the hands of T-Mo support.

estnet

This is it! After 4 tech support calls it turns out that I needed to add fast.t-mobile.com to the apn setting (no need or way to add the other mcc and mnc).

This is a simple choice sim purchased a month ago, with the inlimited international, that worked fine in Thailand 2 weeks ago. Used on an unlocked Verizon ipad 4.

That setting was originally added when I purchased the sim, but mysteriously disappeared - I never changed it?!? ANY CLUE HOW THIS CAN HAPPEN?

the tech who finally said this solution is b/c they "ran out" of IP adresses for ipv4. Not sure i understand all the technical stuff, but the error I got origin was that even tho I could connect to the cellular service it didn't recognize that I was allowed to use data on their service and this fixed it !
BTW, the first provider I connected to (selected by the auto setting) was achingly slow, but switching providers ended in a very useable speed

Thank you letitride, I also wanted to post this in case others have the same problem, because Tmobile doesn't seem to have this info available to their techs, even tho it has been a work around since last Nov according the the higher level tech who finally solved it.

gfunkdave

The network/SIM can reprogram some settings automatically.

The APN is the gateway through which all your phone's data connections go. This is how the carrier can bill you and track your use. You just had an incorrect gateway specified. It doesn't have anything to do with IPv4 or IPv6, unless you also had your phone configured to use IPv6, which can happen.

Letitride3c

Thumbs up & happy to hear that OP's problem solved & data is working overseas as promised by T-Mo, and, at reasonable speed.

It's no fun to be out of the country & head banging against the device, feeling helpless & tech. support are scratching heads with you.

We've had similar issues with users coming to the Nexus 5 forum on XDA-Developers & the knowledge based were being shared, and solutions found. I threw out those as possible settings to check for, not all of them are accessible and/or applicable to different devices & on different platforms - but that fast.t-mobile.com change/addition for the APN was among the keys to resolving the connectivity issues. (epc.t-mobile.com was a common one & older devices using voicestream.com) Trial & error and process of elimination were applied, flipping between IPv4 and IPv6 has more to do with tethering.

estnet

"well for LTE for apn we use.fast.tmobile.com.that works for lte 3g 4g 2g whatever we use.epc.tmobile.com.for just 2g 3g 4g the issues is this carrier didn't support ipv6 which was created after we ran out of IP addresses for ipv4 so we create the new apn to basically make it ipv4 only instead of both." This is part of what I was told.


Don't know what the ipv4 and ipv6 mean, but I'm learning new stuff every day

They originally told me 72hours for the international technology to get back to me and if I hadn't been persistent or gotten help here I'd still be without internet.

Is the fact that the sim or network can reset my settings without my knowledge really true? Any way I can stop this?

Actually the apn field was empty, and I don't know if this happened when I was in the US or when I landed in Spain because I know it was there a few days ago because it had to be added to the tether field so I could use the iPad as a hotspot and this was done a few days before I left on this trip.

Anyway I've learned something new and hope this information helps others as well.
This certainly explains why the carrier thought I didn't have access with them since they didn't know who to bill!

boerne

I am just an amateur but my recent experience demonstrated that the APN often changes to something not useful or goes blank when you boot up in a new country. This happened to me a lot with Toggle in Nov/Dec 2013 and ATT in China last year. What I learned was to research what APNs are working where, put that in a memo on the phone locally, and if data doesn't work, look at the APN first. XDA is a good source for this but you have to drill down through the teenage whining to get to the useful stuff (kinda like the AA forum).

pseudoswede

There are apps available that will keep an offline list of APNs of pretty much every cellular provider in the world.

Letitride3c

Most of the time, the non-home provider in other countries see your device as roaming, and often automatically upload the "settings" or "configuration" file to you & install it, resulting in the change. Good move to plan ahead, that's what I try to do unless I've already stored & saved the unique settings already. Not all devices are capable or accept them and/or if they are locked down, and in some cases, it's hidden or not accessible to the user.

AONwheels

OK, this is happening to us. Two iPhones - SE and 6 - with T-Mobile simple choice plan. When we first entered Spain we got movistar LTE or 3G, and briefly Vodafone LTE, but getting closer to Barcelona we got movistar - no LTE, no 3G, nothing displayed after the name. Any attempt to use data tells us "can't connect to cellular network". We can call each other thank goodness. Texting sort of works - long delays sending with the iPhone SE and sometimes fails.

At least a list of providers eventually showed up when I took Carrier off Automatic. I'm going to try Vodafone ES or Orange SP, although right now in the hotel they say no service.

OK - I guess we going to have to try to understand the technical stuff above!

Oh, I should add that our phones worked great all over Netherlands and France - even during long car and train trips, and only getting close to Barcelona where this happened.

SOLUTION - in four steps, as guided by T-mobile support at the international number listed above.

At each point the support person checked to see if we had data.

1. Dial #766#

2. Go to Settings->General->Reset and select Reset Network Settings. Let the phone restart.

3. Go to Settings->Cellular and turn Cellular Data off for at least 5 seconds, then turn it back on.

4. Go to Settings->Cellular Data Options and turn Data Roaming on.

About a second after step 4 "LTE" appeared after the carrier name Movistar and we finally had cellular data!