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Texting issues when in the USA

Matt1
Organizer

I recently upgraded my 12yr old 3g mobile phone with a new 5g/4g Samsung A13. I also upgraded my wife's 3g phone as well to the Samsung A13. We swapped the SIMS from the old phone to the new phone, after trimming them to fit the Nano SIM slot. The phones have since worked perfectly to send texts and voice calls. The reason for the upgrade was that the US carriers no longer operate using 3g and require 4g/LTE/5g devices. 

 

We both have US Roam Ready on our account and have used our old phones in the past while in the States, without any issue at all. 

 

This past week when we went to Tennessee on vacation. The phones worked normally up until we crossed into the US. Once the phones started to roam on either T-Mobile or AT&T, texting became intermittent. Both phones would either have to be restarted, or the Airplane mode would have to be turned on then off, to get the phones to send or receive text messages. This solution would only work for 2-3hrs, or if we moved locations, then the phones would have to be reset again.

 

I tried changing multiple phone settings to determine what was going on, but was unsuccessful.

 

When we drove back to Canada, the minute we crossed the bridge the phones started working normally again.

 

I am now wondering if the 12yr old 3g SIM card from our original phones is causing issues connecting to the US networks since they do not support 3g anymore.  A Google search says that the SIM cards may or may not be interchangeable, so I am unsure if this is the issue. I may order two new Telus LTE SIMS and see if that fixes the problem.

 

Has anyone else had this issue ?

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Matt1
Organizer

We went to Florida this past week, and the phones both worked normally, so it appears that the older SIM cards were causing the problem.

Thanks for everyone's help.

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6 REPLIES 6

Dimo-X
Moderator
Moderator

Can't say I've had that experience. Though it may very well be the older sim card in this case... though often times it's not the first thing that comes to mind in your particular scenario! I think it's definitely worth trying out the newer sim cards given they may be more compatible with newer protocols, but a part of me wonders if there might be something more at play. Keep us posted! 🙂 

HSL
Advisor

Matt1 .... you may have already found this article from your Google search but it might be helpful to folk encountering similar problems.

 

A Techwire article title "Why is my phone on 3G?:

 

Link is here -> Techwire - Why is my Phone on 3G 

I just received the new SIM cards today and activated and installed them.. I will be going back to the US during the second week of September so I will be able to test the phone then. 

I will report back with the results.

HSL, thanks for the link. I did try everything suggested in that article, regarding changing the network settings, but it did not work.

Fingers crossed that its is the SIM.

I feel like this warrants a drum roll and suspense music! lol #DigitalFingersCrossed

BillTelusCust
Rockstar

Yeah, you need an LTE compatible SIM, I hope it worked for you and I expect it should have.

Matt1
Organizer

We went to Florida this past week, and the phones both worked normally, so it appears that the older SIM cards were causing the problem.

Thanks for everyone's help.