Prepaid SIM doesn't work in Germany

[clh]

Hi, my father is visiting me in Europe and bought a prepaid SIM in from Vodafone in Amsterdam. The salesperson told him it would continue to work when he traveled to Germany, but as soon as he crossed the border it stopped working. Anyone happen to know we can get this fixed?

Thanks,
Charlie

[Energieboy]

Hello clh
Has your father switched on roaming on his device?
Switches off its device for a while and then turns it on again, does it still not work?
You could look differently manually if you can get on the network from Germany.

Normally it should also work normally. Does he have enough money on his SIM card?

[clh]

Hi! Thanks for your reply!

Yes, roaming is on. Yes, it's been restarted multiple times since he's been in Germany. Still nothing.

Oh, except ... it just started working -- for calls, anyway. I have no idea what could have changed. The only thing we've done is attempt to start a My Vodafone account for him this morning, which I gave up on when I discovered that in order to do so he would need to receive an SMS. But when I picked up the phone to double-check everything just now, I saw that (somehow!) the confirmation code SMS for My Vodafone had arrived.

Am still having trouble sending and receiving SMSes and iMessages, and the browser doesn't work (it says he's "not subscribed to a cellular data service".) Will try restarting the device again now...

-Charlie

[clh]

Restarting doesn't help. He can receive SMS messages, and make and receive calls. Nothing else works.

I don't know how much money he has left on the SIM card but I guess it's quite a bit. I think he's made 2 short phone calls and sent about 4 texts since arriving, all of them in Amsterdam (except the one text today).

[Marc]

@clh, via My Vodafone it's possible to check the money left on the SIM card. Which APN (access point name) is set-up in the internet settings of his phone?

[clh]

Hi @Marc -- I can't view the APN on his phone (following these instructions: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201699). Under Cellular Data Options all I see is Roaming (which is on).

I'm still waiting for my confirmation email to finish setting up the My Vodafone account, so I'll check the balance if and when that finally comes. Thanks for that tip.

[Energieboy]

De instellingen voor internet van Vodafone op je mobiele telefoon (APN) zijn als volgt:

• Naam: Vodafone
  
• APN: live.vodafone.com
  
• Proxy: Niet ingesteld
  
• Poort: Niet ingesteld
  
• Gebruikersnaam: Niet ingesteld
  
• Wachtwoord: Niet ingesteld
  
• Server: Niet ingesteld
  
• MMSC: Niet ingesteld
  
• MMS-poort: Niet ingesteld
  
• MCC: 204
  
• MNC: 04
  
• Verificatietype: PAP
  
• APN-Type: default
  
• APN-Protocol: IPv4
  
• Roamingprotocol voor APN: IPv4
  

[clh]

I still can't find any of those settings on my father's iPhone (maybe because it's an old iPhone 5 running iOS 9). However I did try using the Reset Network Settings feature, after which the phone restarted itself. That didn't help.

I finally got into My Vodafone and here's what it says about his account (appears he's got a lot of data and minutes left, unless I'm reading it wrong):

https://i.imgur.com/2scP293.png

[Energieboy]

https://support.apple.com/nl-nl/HT201699

[clh]

Hi Endonobably, thanks for the link. I'd already tried that (see above) but can't find any such info under Cellular Data Options on his phone. (And it did work when he was in Amsterdam...)