UM troubleshooting, "No Network Coverage"
 

I recently bought a United Mobile SIM card (+423) along with an unlocked quad-band GSM phone, a Nokia 6085. I intend to use it in Europe, but wanted to try it here in the Vermont first to make sure that all was well before my trip. For some reason, however, all I get are messages saying "No network coverage."

I spoke with a UM customer service representative over the phone and they were not able to help. They said they have roaming agreements in the United States with AT&T and with T-Mobile. Could this be the problem, since neither of those companies operate in Vermont? There is good, local GSM service, but it's through Unicel.

I talked with Unicel, too, but they think the problem is with the SIM card. They insist that I should be able to pick up their towers whether United Mobile has a roaming agreement with them or not since their customers often roam against their will on Canadian towers just over the border.

Any thoughts? :(

Let me give you my 2 cents. UM might not pick up a signal because it dosen't have roaming agreements with Unicel. But let me also tell you, that most Nokia phones will not work with callback sims so you need to trigger the call with the USSD triger of *137*00xxxxxxxx#. I hope this will help you out.

Actually, I tried the *137*00xxxxxxxx# sequence (the UM rep suggested it also), but that didn't work either. I'll be in New Hampshire this weekend and they have AT&T and T-Mobile towers, so maybe I'll give it a try there...

A GSM phone won't pick up or show a signal unless it is registered on a network, which in turn requires the SIM card to be admitted. So without roaming agreement with any of the locally available networks your phone won't register on any network. USSD-commands make no sense without network connection. But you can see a list of available GSM networks if you do a manual network search.

I think at the UM customer service they told you the right thing: UM (i.e. FL1) has roamimg agreements with T-Mobile and AT&T only in the US. So that means that they have no roaming agreements with Unicel. It seems Vermont is still quite an isolated state for GSM users since most simcards in the World have agreements with with Tmo and AT&T only.

Your +423 won't work in Vermont until FL1 decides to have an agreement with Unicel, but I fear it will never happen. But it will work with no hassle everywhere there's a network with roaming agreements.

Thanks. This is what I thought was happening, but Unicel was so adamant about it that I thought I would check it out further. I guess I should never have accepted the word of a (seemingly) teenage sales rep! For what it's worth, though, she also said that they expect to be part of AT&T within the next few months, so there may be hope yet.

In the end, it's not that I need to use the SIM card here in the U.S. It would be expensive to do it, but I thought it was the best way to keep the card active. According to UM's policy, the card has to be "used" every nine months or it will expire. I generally only travel abroad in the summer, so that presents a problem.

Instead of making an occasional short call, I can add money to my account online to keep it active, but $30 is the minimum amount and since I mainly use it for free incoming calls, it doesn't make sense to accumulate $30 credits to it every nine months.

If I can get it to work somewhere else in the U.S. that'll be good enough. I'll give it a try this weekend in New Hampshire, and I'll be in PA in a few weeks time...

One last thing. I was interested in one poster's comment about Nokia phones being problematic with callback services. I can still return the Nokia phone I bought and exchange it for another. How are the Motorola's for call quality and battery life?

SMS issues
 

Dear Prof:

There are or were issues with US T-MO and +423 #s. See previous posts here. T-MO has basically BLACKLISTED calls/SMS to/from +423. At least this was my experience and confirmed by calls and emails with T-MO and UM customer support last year. Maybe that has changed; I don't know.

You may indeed be billed by UM, but your SMS will not be delivered and, I believe, not received, if you register on T-Mobile. My experience. One reason I switched to the UM+ card.

Stan

Well if Unicel will be part of AT&T and use AT&T's network code you'll soon be able to use your UM card there in Vermont too.

BTW I think you should have no problems with the Nokia 6085 and UM +423. UM+ usually has some more problems, but mainly with Symbian phones.

UM does work on Rogers, so if you're near the Canadian border, you could go to Rogers coverage and see if your SIM works there.