Trouble dialing out from U.S. with United Mobile SIM
 

I'm a newbie, an I hesitate to enter this forum because my problem is probably due to some stupidly simple thing I'm doing wrong -- but here goes.

I ordered two United Mobile SIMs for our upcoming Paris trip, and installed them in a couple of Motorola V190s I got on eBay. I went through the activation ritual, but can't get the phones to call out.

The phones work, in that they light up, etc., but when I enter a number and hit "Send", I get a screen that says, "Message Not Allowed". I wait to be disconnected, and to get the ring back, as UM's instructions say, but that never happens. The phone sits there for awhile, then changes to "Entering". Then it goes dark. I thought it was just that I was inputting the wrong international code, and I tried all possible combinations; +, 00, 01, 011, etc.

I tried calling one Motorola phone from the other. No go.

I tried my home and U.S. cell numbers, and a few overseas friends. No go.

Then I tried calling the new phones from my own Verizon cell phone, using the prefix 011 44, and both of the new ones rang, so the phones must be functional.

One other thing i noticed, that might give a clue, is that every time I power the phone down, then power it up again, I must re-enter the PIN.

I have sent an email to United Mobile, but have not had any feedback.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

:-(

With these sort of SIMs that use callback, not necessarily all phones support direct entry dialling like that and you may have to use the menu dialling method instead - look in the last section of the menu (United Mobile folder) instead

Second Andy....it should work with menu dialing...go through the menu entries till you find the United Mobile menu and you should see some indication of manual dialing...that should work

Another possibility is to switch the roaming partner...find the menu entry to manually select the network...I have found sometimes that AT&T doesn't work and T Mobile USA does.

Incidentally, you can change the pin if you want and/or remove the necessity of entering the pin every time you turn on the phone...there should be some menu entry for security which will allow you to do so...I always do that myself as I don't feel or see the great advantage of a pin on a PAYG phone...if somebody finds the phone you're probably not going to get the amount stored on the sim back anyway, chances are the thief will take the sim out and if you enter the pin incorrectly, you can freeze the sim till you find the little card with the PUK code if you still have it...

Thanks, both, but that does not seem to work. I cannot find the menu dialing function. I have scrolled through the whole menu, and sub folders, and there does not appear to be such a thing. At least it is not called that on these Motorola V190s. Neither does a "United Mobile menu seem to be there.

Any other ideas?

:-(

I don't know if this will help you...

On my motorola which is a different model, United Mobile is a submenu of Office Tools and a sub menu of United Mobile is service and then a sub menu of service (which is the only sub menu of United Mobile on this phone) is dial...when I select dial it says enter a number to dial....enter the number using the + and it works...

Yes, the problem with those SIM-stored menus is that their location in the phone menu structure varies from handset to handset. Anyway, even if "menu calling" fails, try the USSD code *137*CountryCodeNumber#. Country code is not preceded by anything - no +, 00 or anything like this... Not so convenient, but should work.

Thank you all, but no joy. I can now find the United Mobile entry on my menu, it indeed was under Tools. It only opens into "Service", and that thing will not open on either phone menu. I suppose that the "menu Calling" option is hidden in there. I will write to UM again to see if they have a work-around for me.

Thanks,

:-(

The *137* code didn't work either?

Przemolog,

Well, I tried it, but perhaps I did it incorrectly. Did you mean, enter "Star" - 137 - "Star", before entering the country code? I did that, but the same thing happened.

I've also tried dialing their "Easy Code" numbers, i.e., 094 for customer service, 089 for balance inquiry, etc., and that does not work either. I even tried searching for the different available carriers, i.e., Cingular, and T-Mobile, and registering with them to see if that was the problem. Since I can change registration with these, I assume the phones are able to receive, just not able to send a signal.

Sigh ----

:-(

I can receive the callback when making a call. I am unable to dial my number from many routes. Since weekends are periods when we had problems in the past also I would call the cs.

I know for a fact that those phones do not work with UM+ by direct dialing numbers stored on the phone. You have to go through the menu as the others said. Very Important! You will only see the dialing sub-menu under "servies" if you have not tried to direct dial first. If you have tried to direct dial first, you will only see the service menu, and you will have to power off/on the phone to see the sub-menus under services. Bottom line, any numbers stored on the sim will show up in the "phone book" menu under services and can be direct dialed from there. I posted my experience in the big UM+ thread. BTW, my phone is V195 (tmobile), but it's pretty much the same as V190s carried by cingular. Very cheap and simple quad-band phones. Except that with UM+ you can't direct-dial numbers stored on the phone.

AS for the PIN, you can ask the phone to not always ask for the SIM PIN. Go under security->SIM PIN and turn it on/off. It will ask for the current PIN for verification.

Good suggestion, Prion. It would be a lot easier to call the customer service if I could dial out!

:-)

I can dial using my UM sim from the phone (direct dialing). I suppose the problem is either with your phone or with the network you are using. Try a voip provider to dial the CS.

Did you try my suggestions above.

You definitely do not want to call CS using the UM+ sim (or anywhere else for that matter) from the US. It's insanely expensive! Check the rates page for exactly what that will be.

It happend to me
 

About a year ago I bought a Motorola v190 for use with United Mobile. It refused to make outgoing calls, and United Mobile didn't offer any help despite repeated requests. I started a few threads in this forum about my problem, but nobody came up with a solution. I'm afraid you need a different phone or a different sim. If you decide on a different phone, my +423 number United Mobile sim works with a Nokia 6610 and a Motorola v3. You can buy a used 6610 on ebay for around $50. Good luck.

About a year ago I bought a Motorola v190 for use with United Mobile. It refused to make outgoing calls, and United Mobile didn't offer any help despite repeated requests. I started a few threads in this forum about my problem, but nobody came up with a solution. I'm afraid you need a different phone or a different sim. If you decide on a different phone, my +423 number United Mobile sim works with a Nokia 6610 and a Motorola v3. You can buy a used 6610 on ebay for around $50. Good luck.

Hot Damn! Great suggestion, Bossman, about having to power down before being able to access the "services" menu on my Motorola V190. At least I can enter a number, and start to dial out. I even was able to hit "Balance" to see the amount left in my account.

Only problem, is that when I enter a number, it tries to dial out, but I then get a "Service Unavailable" message. I have tried it on both phones, and get the same on each. I even tried registering one on T-Mobile, and the other on Cingular -- to the same effect.

Any hints?

:-)

Oh, dear, Stan. That sounds ominous. I leave for Europe in a few weeks, so I don't know if I have the time to mess around with different phones --- or the bucks I want to spend.

I'll hang in there in case anyone else has a good suggestion. Perhaps another answer would be to just wait until I get to France and buy a different SIM that will work with a Motorola V190. Anyone know (for sure) which ones work?

:-)

Try this. Store the number on the sim card(make sure it's the +country code number format), it will show up under the phone book under services. Then try to dial just like you did to get the balance.

Is should be followed by the hash sign #.

What I typed as: *137*CountryCodeNumber# you should understand in the following way (examples).

To call +1-234-555-6789 dial *137*12345556789#,
to call +44-7926-123456 *137*447926123456#.

The real thing behind the callback in UM+ and other international SIMs is a code of the above kind in which the destination number is "wrapped". Because using such codes is inconvenient, some smart people invented applications that "catch" numbers dialled from the keyboard or selected from the SIM/phone memory. Thanks to those solutions you should be able to make yor calls almost normally i.e. you dial the number as usual and the only difference you wait for the callback right after. The problem is that many phones on the market don't allow such "catching". To bypass it, dialing menus are added. n cases they fail too, and dialling with using the explict "wrpaping" code is the only way that works....

http://www.telestial.com/ is selling a new Siemens European dual band and a sim with $20 calling time on it for $49. The sim is not the world's best in terms of calling rates, but I'm pretty sure United Mobile works well with Siemens phones.

Przemolog,

That solution sounded good, too, but it did not work. :-( When I enter that one from the menu dial, I get an "Invalid Number" message. Hate to admit it, but Stan may be right, and I should just trash these phones or the UM SIMs.

:-(

There is a problem with using UM+ for out going in the US. I just tried to dial out on t-mobile and I got the same "service unavailable" And, trying to register on AT&T failed. Can't even get the balance. Have never had problems dialing out bor registering on either tmobile or AT&T. Dialing via the services menu as I posted above should work, so you should probably give it some time or if you really need to test it today, give UM customer service a call from a land line. They'll probably just tell you the thing is now working for outgoing in the US at the moment.

Do not doubt anything being said but I tried UM+ on several different phones in the USA and it works fine....can make and receive calls (but of course I wouldn't let any calls be completed for obvious reasons) so I don't really think it's a USA issue...I suspect it's a phone issue (incidentally the phones are Nokia 6610, Nokia 3100, a Siemens very cheap phone and a Motorola v something or other but not the v190...they all work by phoning directly and they all receive fine and they all give balances...odd......

Now working...may be service was down briefly. Both out going and incoming are now working now (earlier incoming was ringing busy after 2 rings). I was also able to get the balance. So, if you are still not able to dial out via the sim's menu. And, you've tried all the suggestions given, You will probably need to get another phone if you want to use UM+. UM+ does to work direct dialing in my V195 or SLVR L7. Works in the V551 and Nokia 3120.

Hmm, it seems that we may have misunderstood one another :-)

Did you dial *137*...# in the dialing menu? If so, it surely won't work.
You should dial *137*...# directly from the phone keyboard and follow it by pressing the SEND/OK/green button or whatever you have on your phone what starts the call :-). You can also store numbers with the "wrapping code" in the SIM/phone memory.

Thanks, all! Using a combination of suggestions, I have made progress. I have stored the numbers on the SIM, using the *137*xxxxxx# method. I can now dial out to my other Motorola, either directly or from the Phone Book. The call processes, i.e., the balance comes up, and I get a ring-back.

That's PROGRESS!

Unfortunately, the other phone does not ring. Perhaps it is the system, as others have said. I will wait until the gods at UM clear the cobwebs from their system, and try again later.

Thanks for your help so far.

:-)

Just one more thing on this subject, if you please. If all does not go well, and I have to chuck these phones, I'd like to be able to keep the UM SIMs and pop them in another couple of cheapo phones. Can anyone suggest phones I can look for on eBay that you KNOW the UM SIMs will work in?

You folks have already suggested the Nokia 6610, and the Motorola V3. These phones are really just for taking to Europe in October for me and my wife to use while there. (We are tied into a long term Verizon contract, or I would simply go with Cingular or T-Mobile, and use their overseas service.)

Anyway, we really just want simple ones -- the Motorola Razr looks great, but we don't need all the bells and whistles such as a camera, etc. Also, even on eBay it is spendy.

Any suggestions as to what models/brands (flip phones preferred) I should look for?

:-)

The Nokia 6610 isn't a flip phone, but it's really quite good - see the reviews in phonescoop.com. They're available on ebay for $50 - $60, shipping included. If you go this route and you have time, buy an unlocked 6610, try it out with your United Mobile sim, and get another one if it works. The one I have worked with the old +423 United Mobile sim, and people on this forum can tell you if it works with the +44 sim. One warning - the Nokia 3120 and 3100 on American ebay are the wrong kind of tribands, and won't work well in Europe.

A generalization and not always true depending on the merchant...what you have to do is check the specs of the one being sold...you want to make sure it is 900/1800/1900 and absolutely not 850/1800/1900...(technically the 850/1800/1900 are the 3100B or 3120B...but many merchants don't know the difference but many do and want to see the true international ones and not the dumbed down ones for the American market......

Incidentally I am using the 6610 with the UM+ card and it works perfectly.

Just to bring you up to date; I have finally figured out how these phones work. I can now make calls on them. I'm not at all happy with the phones themselves - I have to do all of those awkward phone book entries (*137*xxx--#), but they at least work.

My plan now is to use the phones and the UM SIM time in Europe next month, and then dump them when we get back. As soon as my Verizon contract runs out, I will change to a GSM phone that I can use both here and in Europe.

Thank you for all of your help to a newbie. I could not have gotten this far without you.

:-)