Voda SIM refusing to roam

[email protected] declared for all the world to
hear...
> I wonder if anybody can shine some light on this strange behaviour.
>
> I have a collection of Voda PAYG SIM cards, which work (with and
> without roaming) in normal phones, in a PCMCIA GPRS adaptor in a
> laptop, and also in a GPRS/3G mini-PCI card in a laptop. In short,
> just as they should.
>
> However, I have a HP4700 PDA with an Audiovox RTM-8000 compactflash
> GPRS adaptor. As far as I can tell, this has never worked when outside
> the UK, and I can't see why.
>
> The PDA (pocket/pc is crap) shows no error message; just says it could
> not connect.
>
> All I can think of is that somehow the CF adaptor's firmware prevents
> roaming, but is that possible? I thought roaming was purely a function
> of the SIM card and what features are enabled on that account on the
> Vodafone computer.
>
> Voda are no help, of course. Their cust service don't know anything.
>
> Can anyone recommend a CF GPRS adaptor which will definitely work
> abroad?

Next time you go roaming take the SIM and a phone with you. If the SIM
roams in the phone but not your device then your device is clearly the
cause of this issue.

To blame Vodafone CS is a bit harsh really, all they will be able to do
is tell you if roaming is enabled on that SIM or not. They will not
support a device which you did not purchase from them. Have you tried
getting some support for the device itself?
--
Regards
Jon

---

› See More: Voda SIM refusing to roam

Peter <[email protected]> wrote:
> Well that is obvious (by elimination) but I still don't understand
> whether this is because the RTM-8000 is somehow unable to roam, or
> whether this PDA initialises the RTM-8000 modem to not roam (which is
> probably possible).
>
> The SIM cards roam OK.

It's not something simple like the modem is set to manual network selection?
I've had trouble in areas abroad where two national operators in the same
country have roaming agreements - while the phone will happily roam from one
to the other, the data connection was tied to the network whose SIM it was,
and so would cut out data whenever the phone felt like roaming to the other
network. So maybe the modem has automatic network selection switched off,
to avoid this problem? Perhaps it's in some non-obvious configuration
option somewhere?

Theo

[email protected] wrote:
> Very good point.... where could this be? In the modem init string,
> perhaps? This is where the APN is specified, and I know where this
> string is stored.

Googles:

This seems to be the manual:
http://www.audiovox.com/manuals/owne...y%20color).pdf

p78 seems to suggest a setting in the Windows CE software. Presumably you
only need to set this once?

However, looking at the Nokia commands manual:
http://www.itruss.com/files/atnokia.pdf

the command seems to be AT+COPS - pp34-35.

Maybe this will work with your card too?

Theo

Peter <[email protected]> wrote:
> Thank you for finding these. I had the RTM-8000 manual but not the
> Nokia GSM manual.
>
> So, changing the "extra init string" from
>
> +CGDCONT=1,"IP","pp.internet"
>
> to
>
> +COPS=0,+CGDCONT=1,"IP","pp.internet"
>
> Would that be right? +COPS=0 seems to be the default anyway.

I'd assume so. It might help if you could try this on a terminal program to
see if the command is accepted... is there an equivalent of HyperTerminal
for Windows CE? You can then see what the current setting is, and see if
the list of networks it produces is sensible. Might be easier than just
stabbing in the dark...

Theo

Theo Markettos <[email protected]> wrote:
> Peter <[email protected]> wrote:
> > +COPS=0,+CGDCONT=1,"IP","pp.internet"
> >
> > Would that be right? +COPS=0 seems to be the default anyway.
>
> I'd assume so. It might help if you could try this on a terminal program to
> see if the command is accepted... is there an equivalent of HyperTerminal
> for Windows CE? You can then see what the current setting is, and see if
> the list of networks it produces is sensible. Might be easier than just
> stabbing in the dark...

Ooh, BTW, AT commands aren't comma separated. So it'd be:
+COPS=0+CGDCONT=2,"IP","pp.internet"

Theo

On Aug 27, 8:41 am, Peter <[email protected]> wrote:
> Just to add:
>
> I phoned Voda to check that roaming is not disabled on this SIM card,
> and the woman said it not.
>
> However she was adamant that this card should be on pp.vodafone.co.uk
> when in fact it came out of an old Voda laptop bundle which uses the
> pp.internet APN. She said ALL Voda PAYG cards are on pp.vodafone.co.uk
> and would not be convinced that they ever did anything different.
>
> Sure enough, configuring pp.vodafone.co.uk stops even UK access
> working.

Hello Peter

I am sorry that you have experienced problems using data abroad.

It is possible that the network that you were roaming on does not
support GPRS. You can check this by visiting www.vodafone.co.uk/goingabroad
- if you then select the country that you are visiting you will be
able to see the networks with who we have roaming agreements with, and
if they support GPRS for our roaming customers. Using GPRS abroad
should be a seamless experience without any need to change the APN.

Kind regards

Andrew
Customer Services
Vodafone Limited