3 UK roaming in Italy...

[Effendi]

I just received Kiwisteve's 3 UK prepaid simcard and I'm testing it a bit here in Genova using my 3 ITA branded (and unlocked) LG U8110.

I put the simcard in the phone, turned it on and left it waiting for about 5 mins but it selected no network. That could be because of the old firmware of the U8110 which cannot choose automatically an UMTS network unless the simcard is a u-sim (3 ITA uses u-sim, I thouhg 3 UK too, but they could be different). Anyway it's quite strange that it doesn't select any GSM network as well (3 UK has agreements with Wind only, which has full coverage both in 2G and 3G here).

So I selected manually 3 ITA and it registered to it after quite a long time (about a couple of minutes). After another minute I received the following SMS: "From 3: For the best rates make sure you stay on 3 Italy. If you need to switch to 3, go to your phone settings and select your network manually.". No welcome messages from 3 ITA.

The weird fact is that after few minutes I found the phone had registered automatically on... Wind!
I registered on the site and it seems the online self-care is quite good (but I leave to Steve the honour to play with it ).

After dinner I came back to where I left the phone (always on Wind) and I read that Steve sent me an SMS, but I never received it. I manually selected 3 ITA once again and sent him a couple of SMS to his Vodafone NZ number. He received both and I received his answers as well both of the times... quite a mistery about the first SMS he sent me! Then I tried to send him a message to his Wind number but the phone failed to send... I checked and saw that there was no network on the display! I'm still trying to select a network manually but it doesn't register to any of them! It could be the LG, but it's surely quite a weird thing...

I shut down the phone and now I'm trying to select the networks manually once again. Nothing changed...

[Effendi]

After leaving the phone alone for several minutes I received an SMS by Kiwisteve, so it meant the phone finally registered... on Wind of course. I sent an SMS to a Wind number and it works both ways. Anyway the phone is always on Wind network... not a big deal with the 3 Roaming offer...

[Effendi]

Tested it on the unbranded K600i as well but nothing changes. With automatic network search the 3UK card stays always on Wind 2G. I can register it manually on 3 ITA but after few minutes it goes back to Wind. It's impossible to set any favourite network as well... so the only way should be the manual selection of the network, but that would mean also a spotty coverage due to the fact 3 ITA doesn't cover so much...

[AndreA]

happy to be ... 3 customers

[andy]

Originally Posted by AndreA

happy to be ... 3 customers

actually it sounds like there will only be 2

Originally Posted by Effendi

Tested it on the unbranded K600i as well but nothing changes. With automatic network search the 3UK card stays always on Wind 2G. I can register it manually on 3 ITA but after few minutes it goes back to Wind. It's impossible to set any favourite network as well... so the only way should be the manual selection of the network, but that would mean also a spotty coverage due to the fact 3 ITA doesn't cover so much...

Not very inspiring.

I had quite a long chat with someone at 3 customer services about these sort of things the other day, and posted most of it in the other thread


I think I will talk to them again in the next few days, so if you have any suggestions for questions let me know.

I'll probably be driving to Slovakia fairly soon, and am looking forward to trying this in Austria a couple of times. I hope the new Finarea company ReturnCall still has those cheap rates by then ...

[Effendi]

Hard to find some 3 coverage in Austria!

[andy]

Originally Posted by Effendi

Hard to find some 3 coverage in Austria!

I see what you mean - I might manage to have coverage for two spells of about 20 minutes each and one of five

Clearly the person at 3 UK who told me there was no 2g roaming there hadn't looked at the coverage map.

But they've launched Like Home roaming ...

[Effendi]

3 is the most unorganized phone-company in the World, I suppose! Anyway they just launched three new postpaid offers in Italy which are not bad, expecially in combination with some unlocked high-end phones and no monthly bill... pity that it's so unreliable...