Roaming onto T-Mobile in the USA has caused untold problems

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Level 1

55 points

Roaming onto T-Mobile in the USA has caused untold problems

I have been New York - Manhattan since last Wednesday.

On arriving in the USA my iPhone roamed onto AT&T 3G - no problems - amazing service! Blistering fast internet, Maps work like a dream & all my apps running smoothly.

On Thursday night went o a club with poor reception. My iPhone roamed onto T-Mobile, then the pain began!!

The signal on my iPhone now continuously fluctuates from 1 bar to full reception every 5 seconds. What I mean by this is that I get 5 bards for a split second then 1 bar for aprox 4.9 seconds. This in tur is causing the iPhone to crash aprox every 3 or 4 minutes.

If I'm not a WiFi network I get the error "You Ae Not Connected To The Internet" when trying to use any app which requires a connection. In addition if I try to send a text message I get the error message "Error Whilst Sending Message". In addition, I have had friends calling me asking why I'm not responding to their texts, so obviously I can't receive texts too

I have repeatedly tried to roam back to AT&T, but every time I go into the networks screen in System Preferences I get the error "Unable to Load Networks List".

I then restored the iPhone to original settings using iTunes, but agin it jams onto T-Mobile immediately and won't give me the option to switch.

I have tried to restore the iPhone to at least get my contacts, mail etc back, but every time I try to sync the iPhone to perform a restore, it crashes. The crashing seems to take place during the network signal fluctuation.

Being quite a logical person I appreciate that this can't be a hardware fault as it worked fine on AT&T, but it seems that there is a problem with the iPhone holding a connection with T-Mobile. In addition, trying to maintain the signal is probably pushing the processor so hard it is causing the iPhone to crash repeatedly.

In addition, I tend to travel a lot. In an average week I'm abroad aprox 3-5 day roaming onto other networks & I've never had a problem with my iPhone 3G.

As you an imagine I'm now getting quite desperate.

So, the point of this post is 2 fold.

1 - Has anyone else experienced a similar issue when roaming, T-Mobile or not?

2 - Can anyone think of a solution to this problem?

Any help, advice or suggestions would be greatly received as I can't bear the thought of having to que at the Apple Store on 5th Avenue on a Sat afternoon to try to get to the Genius Bar....

MacBook Pro dual 2.6 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4Gb 667 Mhz DDR2 SDRAM, Mac OS X (10.5.4), Cube G4 450, MacBook Air, 24" iMac, Mac Pro

Posted on Aug 16, 2008 12:15 PM

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Answer 1

Aug 20, 2008 3:46 AM in response to philsegal

Wow, I have been trying to choose AT&T and eventually it gave me a list thru the Carrier menu...

This seems to have cured it ... Fingers crossed! I can at least now receive calls which I couldnt before.

I guess its just perseverance with the General>Carrier menu.

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Answer 2

Chris Belsey Author

Level 1

55 points

Aug 20, 2008 10:51 AM in response to OVozeh

My host network is O2 in the UK.

Amazingly, again, just like you it happened to me at the 5th Avenue Apple Store in NYC.

Eventually, after numerous resets, restores, reboots etc I discovered that just going into the Network Select screen on Systems Preferences eventually allowed me to select the carrier to AT&T 3G. Problem solved....

But.....On arriving back to London on Monday I was presented with No Carrier in the top left hand corner. I then had to try repeatedly (I mean off and on for a few hours) reboot the iPhone, try to select Network, had the Unable to Load Carriers List error over and over again, until eventually I was allowed to choose O2 3G.

Again after this the iPhone kept trying to roam to Orange or Vodafone in the UK in poor O2 coverage areas, so again, I then had to try repeatedly (I mean off and on for a few hours) reboot the iPhone, try to select Network, had the Unable to Load Carriers List error over and over again, until eventually I was allowed to choose Automatic whilst on the host O2 network to stop the iPhone trying to roam whilst back in the UK.

What a nightmare!!!!!!!!

As I travel abroad at least 3 days every week, I really hope I'm not going to have to go through this trauma when roaming!!!!!!

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Answer 3

wullyjum

Level 1

85 points

Aug 20, 2008 1:11 PM in response to Chris Belsey

Normally when you go abroad your handset will be set up to pick up the strongest network (that your home network has a roaming agreement with) in the area that you are in. In Spain I switched through three networks in the space of one block. If you go to settings then carrier it'll show automatic and then below that all available networks. Automatic will be ticked, if you select the network you'd rather be with instead of having automatic ticked that may solve some of your issues.

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Answer 4

mcaffer

Level 1

0 points

Sep 16, 2008 10:53 PM in response to Chris Belsey

So has anyone actually dealt with this problem? I just got to Texas from Canada (Rogers) and while everyone around me (without an iPhone) is roaming to Singular or AT&T, my iPhone is trying T-mobile and exhibiting the exact behavior you describe. This is of course very problematic. The same phone has worked in the US before. I did update to 2.1 just recently but just did a restore now (without a backup) and the same problem occured.

You say that eventually you got a list in your Carriers screen? I have not been so lucky. My carrier list is always empty.

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Answer 5

icebike

Level 3

740 points

Sep 17, 2008 1:23 AM in response to mcaffer

You say that eventually you got a list in your Carriers screen? I have not been so lucky. My carrier list is always empty.

Well, at least you HAVE a carrier list, even if its empty.

As a US ATT customer, I have no clue what you are talking about. Carrier List? On the General Screen? I think not....

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Answer 6

Sep 17, 2008 6:47 PM in response to Chris Belsey

I first started to have the problem today as well after coming out of the subway, and ended up having the network switched from AT&T to T-mobile. The phone has been rebooting every 3-5 minutes since. Initially I thought I might be a random app that I installed, so ended up removing all apps, and restored the phone. It did not help and the phone is still rebooting as I type, with the only exception if I turn the phone off or turning on the flight mode. It has the same symptoms as what the folks in this thread has described, but I have been unable to change the carrier, it just keep displaying the error message 'unable to load carrier message'.

Will switch it off tonight and try in the morning again, else will go into apple store to see what they say.

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Answer 7

Kinoli

Level 1

0 points

Sep 21, 2008 10:53 PM in response to Chris Belsey

I've got the same exact problem. I'm from Canada (Rogers) and have been in the US for 2 weeks now. When I first got here I was on Tmobile and my phone kept restarting. For the last week my phone was on ATT and it was working perfectly. Now it is connected to Tmobile again. How do I get off crapy Tmobile and back onto ATT. When I go to carrier list in settings, it warns me with "Unable to load network list". Any suggestions?

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Answer 8

icebike

Level 3

740 points

Sep 21, 2008 11:29 PM in response to Kinoli

I don't think you can. If T-mobile is listed as a roaming partner for Rogers the phone will select a roaming partner based on the preference Rogers programed into the system.

Don't be in such a rush to blame T-Mobile. I've spent months roaming onto t-mobile and found their Edge network quite satisfactory. No experience with their 3G.

Just try turning off 3G and roam on Edge.

If the phone is restarting, blame Apple. There is virtual nothing a carrier can do to cause that. Its almost certainly some hair brained Apple scheme to punish un-lockers and jailbreakers.

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Answer 9

Sep 22, 2008 3:30 PM in response to icebike

Yes, agreed that it seems to be a bug by Apple as it just can't seem to handle T-mobile's network as the signal strength keeps going up and down, eventually causing the entire phone to crash and reboot. I ended up going down to the subway so that I get out of range of the network, and when I came out of the station, I was back on AT&T again!

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Answer 10

adam0049

Level 1

0 points

Sep 28, 2008 9:05 AM in response to Chris Belsey

Solution

I am from Canada and have been in New York City for the past two weeks. Everything was working fine roaming on AT&T until my phone switched over to T-mobile, lost service, and started turning off every few minutes.

Under Settings - Carrier I was "unable to load network list".

What does work...

- Turn off wi-fi (Settings - Wi-Fi)
- Turn off Enable 3G and Data Roaming (Settings - General - Network)

Go back to Settings - Carrier and you should now be able to "load network list" and select AT&T

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Answer 11

Sep 30, 2008 1:39 AM in response to adam0049

Thanks a lot, I'm sure this will help a lot of people... I wish I had read that earlier... I've had so many problems last weekend while I was in NYC!

I have an official iPhone 3G from Orange in France. I spent a week in Boston, roaming to AT&T, never had a problem.
Once I got to NYC, I have not been able to use correctly the phone... It drove me crazy.. The phone rebooted itself automatically 10 times a day, I had the error message every 5 minutes "SIM locked", impossible to switch to another carrier, it took me 10 times to make a phone call, impossible to use Edge or 3G network from TMobile.. My iPhone crashed so many times that I eventually lost all my texts messages..
I went to an Apple Store, they had no idea about this issue, the only solution they propose was to restore the phone which I did but did not change anything.

So, if any French people using Orange is planning to go to NY, beware of TMobile network, there is a dirty bug between iPhone and TMobile in roaming.

I called Apple today (in France) to let them know, it is not a known issue.. yet..

Regards..

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Answer 12

icebike

Level 3

740 points

Sep 30, 2008 12:40 PM in response to adam0049

By the way, this problem is NOT unique to the iPhone. It may be something in the way Rodgers configures the phones.

This story shows that Blackberry Bold coming from Rogers goes thru the same shutdown problem as the iPhone. It may be a planned software feature designed to protect the network from phones that jump carriers to quickly for all I know.

Read the article http://crackberry.com/new-york-hated-my-blackberry-bold

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Answer 13

Nov 17, 2008 9:18 AM in response to Chris Belsey

This sounds awful but really glad that i am not the only one having this problem,
i am a UK Iphone customer with o2 and it worked fine in NYC with AT&T and then crashed every couple of minutes when it found T Mobile and only really started working when i eventually managed (somehow) to get AT&T again 4 days later.

the only quite funny thing is that i am about to be arrested for harassment becuase i sent a text message to a girl while my iphone was crashing. I have no record of the text but she has received it 3972 times and counting, this is ten days later. neither o2 nor Apple seem able to solve this problem she can't turn her phone on becuase she gets texts at the rate of 3 a second.

Apple/O2 really need to sort out this problem with roaming on T Mobile or warn everyone. they can also pay for my texting bill.

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Answer 14

icebike

Level 3

740 points

Nov 17, 2008 5:03 PM in response to billymore

I can't understand why Apple can't have one of their stores in London express over an O2 phone for one of the so called Geniuses to test. How hard can that be?

Maybe it should be ATTs job to get roaming working, but Apple wrote the software and they should fix it so it gives an intelligent error message and stop with the "continuous network hopping till the phone crashes" nonsense.

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Answer 15

Nov 18, 2008 3:34 PM in response to adam0049

I have an iPhone 3G via Rogers in Canada, and have the exact same problem. I was hopeful that the above suggestion would work, but it has only partially for me. Turning off "Enable 3G" has stopped the network fluctuation and reboot, but has not given me back the ability to select a carrier. The latter problem has plagued me since owning the device, but this is my first encounter with the T-Mobile problem.

What a nightmare.

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